Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Buck?

\Buck\ (b[u^]k), n. [Akin to LG. b["u]ke, Dan. byg, Sw. byk, G. bauche: cf. It. bucato, Prov. Sp. bugada, F. bu['e]e.] 1. Lye or suds in which cloth is soaked in the operation of bleaching, or in which clothes are washed. 2. The cloth or clothes soaked or washed. [Obs.] --Shak.
\Buck\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Bucked} (b[u^]kt); p. pr. & vb. n. {Bucking}.] [OE. bouken; akin to LG. b["u]ken, Dan. byge, Sw. byka, G. bauchen, beuchen; cf. OF. buer. Cf. the preceding noun.] 1. To soak, steep, or boil, in lye or suds; -- a process in bleaching. 2. To wash (clothes) in lye or suds, or, in later usage, by beating them on stones in running water. 3. (Mining) To break up or pulverize, as ores.
\Buck\, n. [OE. buk, bucke, AS. bucca, bua, he-goat; akin to D. bok, OHG. pocch, G. bock, Ir. boc, W. bwch, Corn. byk; cf. Zend b?za, Skr. bukka. [root]256. Cf. {Butcher}, n.] 1. The male of deer, especially fallow deer and antelopes, or of goats, sheep, hares, and rabbits. Note: A male fallow deer is called a fawn in his first year; a pricket in his second; a sorel in his third; a sore in his fourth; a buck of the first head in his fifth; and a great buck in his sixth. The female of the fallow deer is termed a doe. The male of the red deer is termed a stag or hart and not a buck, and the female is called a hind. --Brande & C. 2. A gay, dashing young fellow; a fop; a dandy. The leading bucks of the day. --Thackeray. 3. A male Indian or negro. [Colloq. U.S.] Note: The word buck is much used in composition for the names of antelopes; as, bush buck, spring buck. {Blue buck}. See under {Blue}. {Water buck}, a South African variety of antelope ({Kobus ellipsiprymnus}). See Illust. of {Antelope}.
\Buck\ (b[u^]k), v. i. 1. To copulate, as bucks and does. 2. To spring with quick plunging leaps, descending with the fore legs rigid and the head held as low down as possible; -- said of a vicious horse or mule.
\Buck\, v. t. 1. (Mil.) To subject to a mode of punishment which consists in tying the wrists together, passing the arms over the bent knees, and putting a stick across the arms and in the angle formed by the knees. 2. To throw by bucking. See {Buck}, v. i., 2. The brute that he was riding had nearly bucked him out of the saddle. --W. E. Norris.
\Buck\, n. A frame on which firewood is sawed; a sawhorse; a sawbuck. {Buck saw}, a saw set in a frame and used for sawing wood on a sawhorse.
\Buck\, n. [See {Beech}, n.] The beech tree. [Scot.] {Buck mast}, the mast or fruit of the beech tree. --Johnson.