bucking

Pluralbuckings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of buck.

   The colt kept bucking until the rider lost his seat.

   Bucking the prevailing trend, she invested when everyone else was selling.

   Note

   One -ing form carries the whole verb, from a horse's arched leap and the rider it throws to an engine that jerks and a person who resists. As a gerund it can still take a direct object, as in bucking the trend. As a full noun, like the kick itself, it takes of and has a plural, buckings.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of a four-legged animal kicking both hind legs upward at once.

   A sudden bucking sent the saddle and rider flying.

   The mule's repeated bucking made it impossible to load the packs.

   Similarkicking

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Cutting a tree into logs after it has been felled and its branches removed.

   The bucking of large trunks requires precise cuts to avoid splitting.

   After felling, the loggers moved on to the bucking of the timber into eight-foot sections.

   Similarcrosscutting

   Note

   A logger's term for the stage after felling and limbing, when the trunk is cut into lengths for milling or transport. It usually appears alongside those other stages: felling, limbing, bucking. Crosscutting and logging-up name the same job. Crosscutting describes how the saw runs, across the trunk. Bucking says where the cut comes in the harvesting sequence.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The process of breaking up or pulverizing ore into smaller fragments.

   After bucking, the crushed ore was passed over tables to separate the metal.

   The bucking of hard quartz ore demanded heavy iron hammers.

   Similarcrushing

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The act or process of soaking or boiling cloth in an alkaline liquid as part of bleaching.

   The bucking of coarse linen loosened the natural oils before bleaching.

   The laundresses repeated the bucking until the fabric lost its yellow tint.

   Note

   Bleachers used one word for both the operation and the alkaline liquid, so context decides which is meant. Cloth is given a bucking, but the bucking itself can also be prepared or renewed. The step loosened natural oils and impurities so the fibers would take the bleach. The same spelling also names work in mines and in logging, which has nothing to do with laundry.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   The alkaline liquid in which cloth is soaked or boiled during the bleaching process.

   Fresh bucking was prepared from wood ash and water.

   The bucking turned brown as it drew oils from the cloth.

   Similarlye

7. 7
   nouncountable

   An act of washing, especially of clothes or cloth.

   The linens were given a thorough bucking before the feast.

   A single bucking was rarely enough for the heaviest work clothes.

   Similarwash, washing, laundering

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