| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| buck1 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  b k |
| NOUN: | 1a. The adult male of some animals, such as the deer, antelope, or rabbit. b. Antelope considered as a group: a herd of buck. 2a. A robust or high-spirited young man. b. A fop. 3. Offensive A Native American or Black man. 4. An act or instance of bucking: a horse that unseated its rider on the first buck. 5a. Buckskin. b. bucks Buckskin breeches or shoes. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: bucked, buck·ing, bucks
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To leap upward arching the back: The horse bucked in fright. 2. To charge with the head lowered; butt. 3. To make sudden jerky movements; jolt: The motor bucked and lurched before it finally ran smoothly. 4. To resist stubbornly and obstinately; balk. 5. Informal To strive with determination: bucking for a promotion. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To throw or toss by bucking: buck off a rider; bucked the packsaddle off its back. 2. To oppose directly and stubbornly; go against: “Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the country, is bucking the trend” (American Demographics). 3. Football To charge into (an opponent's line) carrying the ball. 4. Archaic To butt against with the head. | | ADJECTIVE: | Of the lowest rank in a specified military category: a buck private; a buck sergeant. | | PHRASAL VERB: | buck up To summon one's courage or spirits; hearten: My friends tried to buck me up after I lost the contest. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English bukke, from Old English buc, male deer, and bucca, male goat. | | OTHER FORMS: | buck er —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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