Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to bet (against) in a game of chance.

1851		L. Clappe in Shirley Letters (1949) 74: Little John was [...] betting, or to speak technically, – ‘bucking’ away large sums at monte.
1853		J.G. Baldwin Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi 301: Well done, Tommy, here’s a V.; go, buck it off on a horse-race next Sunday, and we’ll go snooks.
c.1860		in ‘Mark Twain’ Innocents at Home (1872) 395: Every third Chinaman runs a lottery, and the balance of the tribe ‘buck’ at it.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 327: The fact that players at Three-Card Monte, as it is most commonly called, are said to buck at monte, causes the familiar phrase of bucking at anything, in the sense of putting forth one’s whole energy.
1876		B. Harte Gabriel Conroy III 30: It’s just [...] playing it mighty rough on as white a man as ever you saw, Sophy, [...] and everybody ready to buck in agin us who has ten cents to chip in on.
1896		J.F. Lillard Poker Stories 8: The gambler who was indicted for running a game of chance, and was triumphantly acquitted on his counsel’s plea that the players who bucked against his bank didn’t have any chance?
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 172: A sport can buck faro bank for a million as easily as for a white chip.
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew (1926) 164: We’ll put a roulette table in a back room of the Elkhorn, pool the bank against you, and have you buck us.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 327: Men of every class crowded into the Denver House to buck the games.
1956		‘James Updyke’ [W.R. Burnett] It’s Always Four O’Clock 147: I bucked one of the fifty-cent slot machines. Believe it or not, I broke even.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 62: If I’d been sap enough to buck a game like that in the first place.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 67: Son, what you were bucking is a con game older than Moses.

2. to protest, to object, to show irritation.

1851		A.T. Jackson Forty-Niner (1920) 89: Anderson has been asked to deliver the oration and although he bucked at first he finally accepted [DA].
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Jan. 4/3: The editor […] is bucking because, when the Mayor of that port entertained the captain and officers […] at 1 p.m., the editor’s card did not reach him till half-past.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 6 Jan. 5/2: The Wallsend men are bucking against a proposed reduction on present prices.
1897		Cape Girardeu Democrat (MO) 6 Mar. 6/5: A number of republicans voted with the ‘bucking’ democrats.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 5 Oct. 4/1: I am told the stewards are ‘bucking’ like billy-ho over a ‘Scrap’ I penned last week.
1914		E. Dyson Spats’ Fact’ry (1922) 152: You wouldn’t buck at ten pounds fer the identical article, would yeh?
1926		Odum & Johnson Negro Workaday Songs 65: I’m de hot stuff man / Frum de devil’s lan’. / Go on, nigger, / Don’t you try to buck me.
1936		‘Banjo’ Paterson Shearer’s Colt 146: If I spend too much money the Empire Pastoral might buck.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 108: I tried to talk my sheila into doing it for me, but she bucked.
1968		J. Colebrook Cross of Lassitude 74: Can you meet my stiff and heavy requirements? There will be no bucking each other.
1979		H. Leonard A Life (1981) Act II: Me da was buckin’.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] My youngins, they pedigree, so they bucked [...] The heads say they gunned my nigguhs down.

3. (US) to desire, to work towards, to aim for.

1870		San Antonio Paper n.p.: You’ll have to buck at it like a whole team, gentlemen, or you won’t hear the whistle near your diggings for many a year [F&H].
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 52: He had come in from the Provinces, unaccompanied by any Pull, and had simply bucked his way to Advancement.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 115: It was one thing for a player to understand he was bucking a percentage.
1958		E. Gilbert Vice Trap 47: You should buck to take the detective exams.

4. (also buck against) to avoid, to resist, to oppose oneself to; thus buck the system, to fight against the status quo.

1872		see sense 1.
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 1 Dec. 3/3: Campanini ‘bucked’ against them and opposed them in every conceivable way.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Aug. 6/3: Nothing caused Tom to buck more, however, than any little delay caused by a sudden burst of religious fervour on the part of the gentleman doomed to undergo the operation.
1893		F. Harris ‘Gulmore, the Boss’ in Elder Conklin & Other Stories (1895) 213: You’re in politics for somethin’. What is it? If you’re goin’ to buck agen me, you might as well draw out.
1898		Boston Journal 10 July 10/1: Even when uniformed men of this generation mutiny, or buck, in a body, they very rarely make their point stick.
1901		H. Lawson ‘Send Round the Hat’ in Roderick (1972) 477: When he starts mixing us up with strange women it’s time to buck.
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 34: Did you ever know me to buck ag’inst you?
1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘Mammon and the Archer’ in Four Million (1915) 133: Said the rules of society couldn’t be bucked for a yard by a team of ten-millionaires.
1916		‘A-No. 1’ Snare of the Road 95: Not caring to buck the inclement elements, I hunted up a ‘doss house’.
1920		T.H. Kelly What Outfit, Buddy? 77: That hike was one of the worst things we bucked against durin’ this guerre.
1921		Dos Passos Three Soldiers 122: ‘Say, Stockton, why don’t you get up, you fool?’ said Fuselli. ‘You can’t buck the whole army.’.
1926		Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 212: There’s no good bucking the game. It isn’t worth it.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 65: I may be a simp to be buckin’ a guy like Silk Freeman.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 20: He would think twice about bucking this mouse’s old man.
1940		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘Pat Hobby’s Christmas Wish’ in Pat Hobby Stories (1967) 26: If I bucked him he wouldn’t extend me.
1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 125: That’s the way thing works, Cotton. It’s no good to buck it.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 119: Tough, raising crops. One bad year and you can get wiped out. You’re bucking the weather, and what can you do about the weather?
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 14: I’ve taken in plenty guys who started in bucking me.
1960		P. Rabe Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 54: He was somebody smart, with backing, who thought he could buck Lippit’s set-up.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 180: The pipeline bigshots your gang is bucking.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 172: It was foolhardy to buck the white folks.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 67: He’s going to have to buck McDaniel.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 273: That outfit’s too damn big for us to buck.
1978		L.K. Truscott IV Dress Gray (1979) 485: I’ve bucked the system one way or another for three and a half years.
1985		F. Deford Sports Illus. June 🌐 But the priests wouldn't buck Greenfield Jimmy,.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 149: Word is his superiors wont buck him.
1999		Guardian Guide 10–16 July 9: A bunch of crazy film-school types [...] buck the early 70s establishment.
2000		Indep. Rev. 3 Mar. 15: Last year’s delightful win for the genuinely independent Scots Belle and Sebastian [...] has truly bucked the trend.
2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 139: The ‘bad ’uns’, boys who had already shown an inclination to ‘buck the system’.

5. (US campus) to miss a class.

1982

W. Safire What’s The Good Word? 302: ‘Cutting’ is practically never used any more [...] The new terminology is ‘bucking.’.

6. (US campus) to intimidate.

1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Buck (verb) To intimidate someone.
2004		T.I. ‘T.I. vs T.I.P.’ 🎵 Watchin’ nigga’s heads get buck for cuttin’ the lunchline.

7. (US black/teen) to shoot a weapon.

1991		De La Soul ‘Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa’ 🎵 Millie bucked him and with the quickness it was over.
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 4: Buck — Shoot someone in the head.
2002		Cypress Hill Sl. Gloss. 🌐 buckin’: to shoot.
2016		Skepta ‘Lyrics’ 🎵 Drew for the buck ting when I bucked him / And in the jawside's right where I bucked him.

8. (US black, also buck up) to fight.

1992		UGK ‘Trill Ass Nigga’ 🎵 So if you wanna buck buck up bitch and let me black that eye.
2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 138: ‘I had to go buck her [...] Punch her, beat her up’.