buck

Less common meanings

8. 8
   dashing young mannouncountable

   An adventurous, dashing, high-spirited young man, often bold to the point of recklessness.

   He was a bold young buck who feared nothing on the racetrack.

   Back then he was a cocky young buck who would take on any dare, no matter how dangerous.

   UsageUsually young buck.

   Similardaredevil, blade

   Note

   In Thackeray's Vanity Fair (1848), "the greatest buck of all the Indian army" is a dashing, dangerous officer on leave. That use carries glamour as much as recklessness, which brings it close to the older use of buck for a fop or dandy. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Vanity Fair was written by William Makepeace Thackeray and its first book edition was published in 1848. en.wikisource.org
   • The quoted wording occurs in the narrator's description of Swankey, an army officer on leave. en.wikisource.org
   • The surrounding description supports the characterization of Swankey as glamorous and dangerous. en.wikisource.org
   • Buck had an earlier sense meaning a fop or dandy; Wiktionary supplies examples dated before 1848. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   a hundred (slang)nounslangUScountable

   One hundred, especially of dollars or of miles per hour.

   He swore the old muscle car could still do a buck on the open road.

   The cop clocked him doing a buck ten on the interstate.

   Similarhundred, ton

   Note

   American slang counts in hundreds and adds the rest of the number after the word. A buck forty is 140, and a buck and a quarter is 125, with "quarter" standing for twenty-five. The unit is usually left unstated. It might be miles per hour on the freeway or pounds on a scale, and the listener supplies it. This belongs to casual talk only. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • In this American slang sense, buck represents one hundred. en.wiktionary.org
   • A buck forty can mean 140 miles per hour. en.wiktionary.org
   • A buck and a quarter can mean 125 pounds, with quarter representing twenty-five. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    shotgun pelletsnounUSabbreviationclipping

    Short for buckshot: large pellets, usually of lead, loaded in shotgun shells for hunting deer and other large game.

    The hunters preferred buck for close-range shots in the brush.

    She packed several rounds of buck for the boar hunt.

    Note

    Shooters' shorthand, cut down from buckshot, the shot, traditionally lead, whose pellets are larger than birdshot and suited to bigger game. The pellet size goes directly in front, as in double-ought buck. The word is usually counted in rounds of buck rather than in bucks. For readers who do not shoot, the full form buckshot is clearer. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Buck is a clipping of buckshot. en.wiktionary.org
    • Buckshot is traditionally made of lead, but lead-free buckshot is also manufactured. cesaroni-aerospace.com
    • Buckshot has larger pellets than birdshot and is suited to bigger game. en.wikipedia.org
11. 11
    nounAfricacountable

    In African English, an antelope of either sex; compare Afrikaans bok.

    The guide pointed out a buck resting in the shade of a thorn tree.

    Herds of buck crossed the dry plain at dusk.

    Similarantelope

    Note

    In African English the word can work like game or deer, keeping one form for the plural. Timothy H. Cobb, writing on the Kenya-Uganda Railway in Railway Magazine (1950), hopes travelers will see "a herd of buck". The usage reaches well beyond South Africa. The male-only meaning of the male-animal sense falls away, as it does in Afrikaans bok. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Timothy H. Cobb wrote “The Kenya-Uganda Railway” in Railway Magazine in 1950. en.wiktionary.org
    • Cobb describes travelers seeing “a herd of buck”; the quotation and attribution are correct. friendsofmombasa.com
12. 12
    sawing framenouncountable

    A frame for holding firewood while it is sawed; a sawhorse.

    She steadied the branch on the buck before cutting it to length.

    Two sturdy bucks held the timber while they worked.

    Similarsawhorse, trestle

    Note

    A whole family of frames takes its name from the animal. Sawbuck copies Dutch zaagbok, literally saw-goat, a frame standing on four splayed legs. The woodcutter's version is also called a sawhorse or a sawbuck, the same image borrowed from two different animals. The vaulting frame belongs to the same group. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

    • The frame senses of buck belong to an animal-based naming family. en.wiktionary.org
    • Sawbuck is a loan translation of Dutch zaagbok. en.wiktionary.org
    • Zaagbok literally combines the words for saw and male goat. dbnl.org
    • The traditional sawbuck has four splayed legs, arranged as two X-shaped ends. en.wikipedia.org
    • The woodcutting frame is called both a sawhorse and a sawbuck. en.wiktionary.org
    • Sawhorse uses the horse as its animal image. en.wiktionary.org
    • The gymnastic vaulting frame belongs to the same family of buck senses. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    animals matingverbintransitive

    Of deer, rabbits, and similar animals, to copulate; to mate during the breeding season.

    Similarmate, breed, copulate

14. 14
    turn markernoundatedcountable

    An object of various kinds placed on a table to mark turn or status: for example, a marker passed around a poker table to show the current dealer.

    At the old men's weekly card game, a battered brass token served as the buck, and whoever had it in front of him dealt the next hand.

    Each hand, the buck moved one seat to the left to mark the new dealer.

    Similarmarker, button

    Note

    The marker behind a well-known phrase. In a US Navy wardroom, a brass piece rotated around the table to show which officer was served first. At poker, an item went round to mark the dealer or a privilege still owed. Handing that object on gave English the "blame" sense and the phrase pass the buck. Talk of the object itself is now dated. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • A brass marker was rotated around a US Navy wardroom table. en.wiktionary.org
    • The wardroom marker indicated which officer should be served first. quartermaster.army.mil
    • In poker, a marker indicated the dealer or a privilege or obligation associated with a later deal. en.wiktionary.org
    • Passing the poker marker gave rise to the expression 'pass the buck' and its figurative responsibility sense. trumanlibrary.gov
15. 15
    strive forverbslangUSintransitive

    To strive or push ambitiously for something, such as a promotion.

    Junior officers often buck for early promotion.

    Two analysts are bucking for the same director role.

    Similarangle, push, strive, campaign, gun

    Note

    American military slang for pushing toward advancement. The usual phrasing is buck for, as in bucking for promotion. When it moves into office talk it keeps its barracks flavor, so it suits casual speech better than formal writing. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

    • This sense of buck is American military slang for striving for advancement. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    cocktailnouncountable

    A mixed drink of a spirit, citrus juice, and ginger ale or ginger beer, such as a Moscow mule.

    She ordered a gin buck, which came in a tall glass of ice with lime and plenty of ginger ale.

    We sipped bucks on the porch through the whole warm evening.

17. 17
    verbeuphemistichumorousIrelandtransitive or intransitive

    To have sex with someone, used humorously as a milder stand-in for a coarser word.

    She wasn't shy about admitting she wanted to buck him.

    They bucked like rabbits the whole honeymoon, he laughed.

    Similarbonk, shag

    Note

    Irish English uses this for laughs or as a polite cover for the stronger word. It lives mostly in the participle buckin', a mild intensifier, as in "an awful buckin' eejit." Richie Kavanagh's "Mickey's buckin' ass" (1997) plays on both meanings at once: the donkey bucks the cart, and the swear word sits underneath. It sounds comic, but it is still a stand-in for a swear word. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • The example phrase "an awful buckin' eejit" is attested. en.wiktionary.org
    • Richie Kavanagh wrote the lyrics and music of "Mickey’s Buckin’ Ass". richiekavanagh.ie
    • The song dates to 1997. en.wikipedia.org
    • The donkey bucks and smashes the cart; the description of a simultaneous swear-word substitution is an interpretation supported by the lyrics. richiekavanagh.ie
18. 18
    verbintransitive

    To bend or buckle, especially under strain or pressure.

    After the pipe burst, the soaked floorboards bucked upward into a ridge across the hallway.

    Under the weight of heavy snow, a carport's thin metal roof can buck and sag in the middle.

    Similarbuckle, bend, flex, heave

    Note

    Despite the spelling, this is a separate word from the animal. It comes from dialectal buck, "to give in, yield," and before that from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch bucken, "to bend," which goes back to a Germanic root for bending and bowing. The bucking horse and bucking the trend both descend from this bending, not from the deer. In this plain sense the verb is intransitive and close to buckle. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • The bending verb has a separate etymology from the animal noun: dialectal buck, meaning to yield, from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch bucken, ultimately from a Germanic bending root. en.wiktionary.org
    • The horse and resistance senses are grouped under the bending etymology. The source also acknowledges influence from the animal word in some senses. en.wiktionary.org
    • The plain bending sense is intransitive and means buckle. en.wiktionary.org
19. 19
    bragverbarchaicintransitive

    To speak boastfully; to brag about oneself.

    Note

    An unrelated word that happens to share the spelling. It comes from Hindi baknā, "to babble, talk nonsense." In this archaic slang, one bucked about something: in E. W. Hornung's A Thief in the Night (1905), a man is "bucking about his trophies." A modern reader will not take it as bragging unless the context makes that plain. Source

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • The bragging verb is a separate etymological word borrowed from Hindi baknā, meaning to babble or talk nonsense. en.wiktionary.org
    • This meaning is archaic slang for boasting or bragging. en.wiktionary.org
    • E. W. Hornung wrote A Thief in the Night. gutenberg.org
    • A Thief in the Night was first published in 1905. openlibrary.org
    • The construction 'buck about something' and the quoted wording occur in the book; Raffles says this about Maguire. gutenberg.org
20. 20
    noun

    One million dollars, especially in financial and trading contexts.
21. 21
    noun

    A leather-covered frame used for vaulting in gymnastics.
22. 22
    verb

    To cut a felled trunk crosswise into sections with a saw, as when making firewood.
23. 23
    verb

    To press a bucking bar against a rivet's force, absorbing vibration and helping the rivet expand into its hole.
24. 24
    verb

    To step a voltage down, producing an output lower than the input voltage.
25. 25
    noun

    A wood or metal frame used by car customizers and restorers to help shape sheet-metal bodywork.
26. 26
    noundatedUS

    A dated, derogatory term for a Black or Native American man.
27. 27
    nounobsoleteBritish

    A man overly concerned with fashionable clothes and his own appearance.

    This pusillanimous creature thinks himself, and would be thought, a buck.

    1808, Alexander Chalmers, editor
28. 28
    nounslangUS

    A soldier of the very bottom rank in the army, an ordinary private.
29. 29
    nounobsoleteUK

    A coin worth six old British pennies.
30. 30
    noundialectalUK

    The main wooden housing of a post mill, which holds the machinery and swings on its post to face the wind, a term used especially in East Anglia.
31. 31
    noundated

    Short for buck dance, an early African American solo step dance that fed into tap dancing.
32. 32
    noundated

    An oversized marble that children play with.
33. 33
    nounobsoleteUK

    A cab driver working without a license.
34. 34
    verb

    To punish someone by binding the wrists, slipping the arms down around the drawn-up knees, and thrusting a rod between the elbows and the backs of the knees.
35. 35
    verbdialectalMulticultural London English

    To run into or happen upon someone or something.
36. 36
    noundialectalScotland

    A beech, the tree that bears beechnuts.
37. 37
    nounarchaic

    An alkaline wash of lye or soapy water used to bleach fabric or launder clothing.
38. 38
    nounarchaic

    A batch of cloth or laundry being steeped or washed in lye or soapsuds.

    Buck! I would I could wash myself of the buck!

    c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”
39. 39
    verbarchaic

    To boil or soak fabric in a lye solution during bleaching.
40. 40
    verbarchaic

    To clean clothing with an alkaline or soapy wash, or later by pounding it against rocks in a flowing stream.
41. 41
    verbarchaic

    To crush ore into small pieces or powder.

    This [ore mixture] was bucked or cobbed down to a 'peasy' size (i.e. the size of a pea) or less, using a flat-bottomed bucking hammer, and then riddled into coarse peasy and finer (sand-sized) 'smitham' grades.

    1991, Joan Day, R. F. Tylecote
42. 42
    nounarchaicUK

    The load-carrying body of a wagon or cart, and in particular its front section.
43. 43
    nounarchaicUK

    The front of the torso, the chest or belly.
44. 44
    nounarchaicUK

    How large someone or something is, bulk.
45. 45
    verbarchaicUK

    To bulge or puff up.