# buck

Pronunciation: say "BUK" /bʌk/

## Noun

1. An informal word for a dollar, and in South Africa for a rand. *(colloquial, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa)*
   - Simple: An everyday word for a dollar. In South Africa it means a rand.
   - _He handed the cashier five bucks for the sandwich._
   - _I found a buck on the sidewalk this morning._
2. Money in general, regardless of amount. *(colloquial, Australia, South Africa, US)*
   - Simple: Cash, or money thought of as a thing to earn or spend.
   - _They started the company hoping to earn an honest buck._
   - _Big corporations chase the buck above everything else._
3. The male of a deer, antelope, sheep, goat, rabbit, or hare; the term is sometimes also applied to males of other animals, including the hamster, ferret, shad, and kangaroo.
   - Simple: A male deer, rabbit, goat, or similar animal.
   - _A mature buck can weigh well over two hundred pounds._
   - _Farmers separate the bucks from the does during breeding season._
6. Blame, responsibility, or the shifting of fault onto another person. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Blame or responsibility that someone tries to pass to another person.
   - _When the deal collapsed, every executive tried to pass the buck._
   - _The governor told reporters that the buck stops with her, not with her staff._
8. An adventurous, dashing, high-spirited young man, often bold to the point of recklessness.
   - Simple: A bold, lively, stylish young man.
   - _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._
9. One hundred, especially of dollars or of miles per hour. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: One hundred, often of dollars or of miles an 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._
10. Short for buckshot: large pellets, usually of lead, loaded in shotgun shells for hunting deer and other large game. *(US)* — Clipping of buckshot.
   - Simple: Short for buckshot: large balls, usually of lead, fired from a shotgun at deer and other big animals.
   - _The hunters preferred buck for close-range shots in the brush._
   - _She packed several rounds of buck for the boar hunt._
11. In African English, an antelope of either sex; compare Afrikaans bok. *(Africa)*
   - Simple: In parts of Africa, an antelope, male or female.
   - _The guide pointed out a buck resting in the shade of a thorn tree._
   - _Herds of buck crossed the dry plain at dusk._
12. A frame for holding firewood while it is sawed; a sawhorse.
   - Simple: A wooden frame used to hold logs while you saw them.
   - _She steadied the branch on the buck before cutting it to length._
   - _Two sturdy bucks held the timber while they worked._
16. A mixed drink of a spirit, citrus juice, and ginger ale or ginger beer, such as a Moscow mule.
   - Simple: An alcoholic drink made with a spirit, lemon or lime juice, and ginger ale or ginger beer.
   - _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._

## Verb

4. Of a horse or similar animal, to jump with an arched back and kick out the back legs, often throwing off a rider or load.
   - Simple: Of a horse, to jump and kick its back legs up, often to throw off its rider.
   - _Young stallions often buck when first introduced to a saddle._
   - _The bull bucked violently the moment the gate swung open._
5. To resist or go against something, such as a rule, pressure, or trend, as in 'buck the trend.'
   - Simple: To fight against something or go against it, as in 'buck the trend.'
   - _Many employees buck against tighter controls on their schedules._
   - _Despite heavy pressure from party leaders, three young senators bucked the party line and voted against the bill._
7. To lurch or jolt while moving or running, in an abrupt and irregular way.
   - Simple: To move in a sudden, jerky, uneven way.
   - _Worn-out tractors tend to buck when the throttle sticks._
   - _The car bucked violently before stalling at the light._
13. Of deer, rabbits, and similar animals, to copulate; to mate during the breeding season.
   - Simple: Of animals like deer or rabbits, to mate.
15. To strive or push ambitiously for something, such as a promotion. *(slang, US)*
   - Simple: To work hard and push for something, such as a promotion.
   - _Junior officers often buck for early promotion._
   - _Two analysts are bucking for the same director role._
17. To have sex with someone, used humorously as a milder stand-in for a coarser word. *(Ireland)*
   - Simple: To have sex with someone.
   - _She wasn't shy about admitting she wanted to buck him._
   - _They bucked like rabbits the whole honeymoon, he laughed._
18. To bend or buckle, especially under strain or pressure.
   - Simple: To bend or give way under pressure or weight.
   - _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._

## Noun

14. 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. *(dated)*
   - Simple: An object passed around a table to show whose turn it is to deal or act.
   - _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._

## Verb

19. To speak boastfully; to brag about oneself. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To talk proudly about yourself, or to brag.

## Other meanings

- (noun) One million dollars, especially in financial and trading contexts.
- (noun) A leather-covered frame used for vaulting in gymnastics.
- (verb) To cut a felled trunk crosswise into sections with a saw, as when making firewood.
- (verb) To press a bucking bar against a rivet's force, absorbing vibration and helping the rivet expand into its hole.
- (verb) To step a voltage down, producing an output lower than the input voltage.
- (noun) A wood or metal frame used by car customizers and restorers to help shape sheet-metal bodywork.
- (noun) A dated, derogatory term for a Black or Native American man.
- (noun) A man overly concerned with fashionable clothes and his own appearance.
- (noun) A soldier of the very bottom rank in the army, an ordinary private.
- (noun) A coin worth six old British pennies.
- (noun) 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.
- (noun) Short for buck dance, an early African American solo step dance that fed into tap dancing.
- (noun) An oversized marble that children play with.
- (noun) A cab driver working without a license.
- (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.
- (verb) To run into or happen upon someone or something.
- (noun) A beech, the tree that bears beechnuts.
- (noun) An alkaline wash of lye or soapy water used to bleach fabric or launder clothing.
- (noun) A batch of cloth or laundry being steeped or washed in lye or soapsuds.
- (verb) To boil or soak fabric in a lye solution during bleaching.
- (verb) To clean clothing with an alkaline or soapy wash, or later by pounding it against rocks in a flowing stream.
- (verb) To crush ore into small pieces or powder.
- (noun) The load-carrying body of a wagon or cart, and in particular its front section.
- (noun) The front of the torso, the chest or belly.
- (noun) How large someone or something is, bulk.
- (verb) To bulge or puff up.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3, 6, 8–14, 16** — This comes from Middle English bukke, from Old English buc, bucc, bucca ('he-goat, stag'), going back through Proto-Germanic to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'ram'. The currency sense is American English, a shortening of 'buckskin' as a unit of trade in frontier days (from 1748). The 'turn' sense possibly came from poker, where a knife with a stag-horn hilt served as a place-marker called a buck; later a silver dollar replaced it, which some suggest helped a dollar come to be called a buck.
**Meanings 4–5, 7, 15, 17–18** — This comes from dialectal buck ('to give in, yield'), from Middle Low German bucken or Middle Dutch bucken, bocken ('to bend'), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bukkōną ('to bend') and a Proto-Indo-European root meaning 'to bend'. Some senses were influenced by buck ('male goat').
**Meaning 19** — This comes from Hindi बकना (baknā, 'babble, talk nonsense').

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/buck (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).