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[buhk] /bʌk/

noun
1.
Poker. any object in the pot that reminds the winner of some privilege or obligation when his or her turn to deal next comes.
verb (used with object)
2.
to pass (something) along to another, especially as a means of avoiding responsibility or blame:
He bucked the letter on to the assistant vice president to answer.
Idioms
3.
pass the buck, to shift responsibility or blame to another person:
Never one to admit error, he passed the buck to his subordinates.
/bʌk/
noun
1.

2.
(South African) an antelope or deer of either sex
3.
(US, informal) a young man
4.
(archaic) a robust spirited young man
5.
(archaic) a dandy; fop
6.
the act of bucking
verb
7.
(intransitive) (of a horse or other animal) to jump vertically, with legs stiff and back arched
8.
(transitive) (of a horse, etc) to throw (its rider) by bucking
9.
(informal, mainly US & Canadian) when intr, often foll by against. to resist or oppose obstinately: to buck against change, to buck change
10.
(transitive; usually passive) (informal) to cheer or encourage: I was very bucked at passing the exam
11.
(US & Canadian, informal) (esp of a car) to move forward jerkily; jolt
12.
(US & Canadian) to charge against (something) with the head down; butt
/bʌk/
noun
1.
(US & Canadian, Austral, informal) a dollar
2.
(South African, informal) a rand
3.
a fast buck, easily gained money
4.
bang for one’s buck, See bang1 (sense 15)
/bʌk/
noun
1.
(gymnastics) a type of vaulting horse
2.
(US & Canadian) a stand for timber during sawing Also called (in Britain and certain other countries) sawhorse
verb
3.
(transitive) (US & Canadian) to cut (a felled or fallen tree) into lengths
/bʌk/
noun
1.
(poker) a marker in the jackpot to remind the winner of some obligation when his turn comes to deal
2.
(informal) pass the buck, to shift blame or responsibility onto another
3.
(informal) the buck stops here, the ultimate responsibility lies here
/bʌk/
noun
1.
Pearl S(ydenstricker). 1892–1973, US novelist, noted particularly for her novel of Chinese life The Good Earth (1931): Nobel prize for literature 1938
n.

“male deer,” c.1300, earlier “male goat;” from Old English bucca “male goat,” from Proto-Germanic *bukkon (cf. Old Saxon buck, Middle Dutch boc, Dutch bok, Old High German boc, German Bock, Old Norse bokkr), perhaps from a PIE root *bhugo (cf. Avestan buza “buck, goat,” Armenian buc “lamb”), but some speculate that it is from a lost pre-Germanic language. Barnhart says Old English buc “male deer,” listed in some sources, is a “ghost word or scribal error.”

Meaning “dollar” is 1856, American English, perhaps an abbreviation of buckskin, a unit of trade among Indians and Europeans in frontier days, attested in this sense from 1748. Pass the buck is first recorded in the literal sense 1865, American English:

The ‘buck’ is any inanimate object, usually knife or pencil, which is thrown into a jack pot and temporarily taken by the winner of the pot. Whenever the deal reaches the holder of the ‘buck’, a new jack pot must be made. [J.W. Keller, “Draw Poker,” 1887]

Perhaps originally especially a buck-handled knife. The figurative sense of “shift responsibility” is first recorded 1912. Buck private is recorded by 1870s, of uncertain signification.

“sawhorse,” 1817, American English, apparently from Dutch bok “trestle.”
v.

1848, apparently with a sense of “jump like a buck,” from buck (n.1). Related: Bucked; bucking. Buck up “cheer up” is from 1844.

noun

verb

Related Terms

bang for the buck, big bucks, the buck stops here, fast buck, pass the buck, sawbuck

[all senses ultimately fr buck, ”male animal, usually horned”; the semantics are complex: for example, the first sense is said to be fr the fact that a buck deer’s skin was more valuable than a female’s skin; the other senses have most to do with male behavior of a butting and strutting sort]