Green’s Dictionary of Slang

pertaining to a buck, i.e. acting in a dashing manner, dandified, etc.

[1726		Bailey Dict. Rusticum n.p.: nightingale [...] those give hope of proving well, who take their Meat kindly, are familiar and not buckish, and sing quickly].
[1735		Sportsman’s Dict. II n.p.: If you find him [i.e. a skylark] wild and buckish, tie his wings for two or three weeks, till he becomes both acquainted and tame].
1741		Gentleman’s Mag. Feb. 84/1: We have the pleasure to inform the married gentlemen, particularly those who, in their buckish days, have been a little so-so-ish, and are too apt to look jaunduced upon their ladies, that stiffened stays are again coming into fashion.
1755		Connoisseur 23 Jan. 136: If you love me, keep it secret, and should you hear of any prank more wild and buckish than usual, conclude it to be played by me in men's cloaths.
1765		London Mag. Oct. 521/1: Jack Clark, one of the wildest bucks in the whole county of Kent, and inferior to few in the metropolis for buckish spirit.
1773		Town & Country Mag. Supp. 693/2: He left the house [...] under the direction of a young clerk, of a buckish disposition, and a couple of maid servants.
1788		G.A. Stevens Adventures of a Speculist II 86: We have pleasure to inform the married gentlemen, particularly those who, in their buckish days, have been a little so-so-ish, [...] that Stiffend Stays are again coming into fashion.
1800		Sporting Mag. Oct. XVII 38/1: The melting rib of a buckish butcher.
1812		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Picturesque (1868) 59/1: A buckish blade, who kept a horse, / To try his fortune on the course.
1824		Times 27 Nov. 2/4: He [...] affects a buckish levity in matters of crim. con. and seduction.
1835		J.T. Irving Indian Sketches 216: The one was a little rakish-looking dog [...] who had quite a buckish way of carrying his tail. He was a mighty pragmatical, self-important little body.
1841		Friend 14 184/2: The applauded hero of the modern drama is the rich, proud, chivalrous, revengeful, buckish dandy.
1858		Household Words 3 May 497/1: Then there is my extremely neat and buckish friend, my friend who has converted the umbrella into one of the leading elegancies of life.

(orig. UK Und.) bail put up by one member of a gang for another.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Buck Bail Bail given by a Sharper for one of the Gang.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Buck Bail. Bail given by a sharper for one of the gang.
1792		New Cheats of London Exposed 59: If the lender should trace him out and arrest him, his comrades bail him, which is called buck-bail.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum 15: buck [...] bail.
1889-90		Barrère & Leland Sl., Jargon & Cant.

a cuckold; thus buckheaded adj.

1620		‘Excellent New Medley’ in Pepys Ballads (1987) I 456: The Cuckow sung hard by the doore, Gyll brawled like a butter whore, Cause her buck-headed Husband swore the Miller was a knaue.
1624		R. Davenport City-Night-Cap in Dodsley Old Plays XIII Act I: Let ballad-mongers crown him with their scorns: Who buys the buck’s-head well deserves the horns.
c.1660		‘The Dub’d Knight’ in Euing Broadside Ballads No. 19: And I like Acteon most strangely was chang’d [...] My head like a Buck, and Horns like a Ram.
c.1690		‘Country Cozen’ in Pepys Ballads (1987) III 249: [A] good man [...] dreamed like Acteon he was transformed, And like unto a Buck his pate was horned.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Buck’s face, a Cuckold.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus II:10 14: [That] brave General Cornutus, With Head like Buck, and Heart like Brutus.
1711		C. Johnson Wife’s Relief III i: His lofty Crest shall be exalted above his Brethren, [...] a Buck of the first Head.
1721		N. Ward Northern Cuckold in Misc. IV 3: Our Northern Blade Was dub’d a Buck of the first Head.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Buck’s face, a cuckold.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 12: Buck’s Face, one whose mistress is unfaithful.
1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 18: Buck’s face – the husband of an unfaithful wife; a cuckold.

(US) a large measure of liquor.

1847		W.T. Porter Quarter Race in Kentucky and Other Sketches 14: Colonel, let us have some of your byled corn – pour me out a buck load – there – never mind about the water, I drank a heap of it yesterday.
[1866		J.T. Trowbridge The South 258: I loaded up my horse-pistol for 'em, —sixteen buck-shot: I put in a buck load, I tell ye].
1867		G.W. Harris Sut Lovingood 222: He jis’ grabbed a bottil, an’ tuck hissef a buckload ove popskull, an’ slip’t the bottil intu his pocket.
1899		B.W. Green Virginia Folk-Speech (1912) 71: Buck-load [...] A large drink of liquor .

(US) a batchelor; one who lives alone.

1905		McClure’s Mag. 24 25: I might as well go be a buck nun and be done with it.
1936		R.F. Adams Cowboy Lingo 198: One who was living the life of a recluse was also referred to as a ‘buck nun’.
1984		Jackson Hole Guide (MT) 9 Oct. 16/1: ‘Maybe you’d like to meet this buck nun — wagh! [...] A buck nun is a bachelor what cabins off by his lonesome’.

(Aus./US) a party for men only.

1838		J.C. Neal Charcoal Sketches (1865) 26: It’s a buck party entirely;—there’s Mike Mitts, funny Joe Mungoozle [...], Tommy Titcomb, and myself.
1872		Schele De Vere Americanisms 587: Buck-party, like stag-party, denotes a company without ladies.
1888		Referee 19 Sept. in Ware (1909) T 52/2: The one drawback to our pleasure has been the delicate state of Mrs. Pon’s health. This sent me out to what are called here ‘buck parties’, i.e., parties of men only, when otherwise I should have gone with her to (what she calls) more civilised gatherings.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1957		‘Nino Culotta’ They’re a Weird Mob (1958) 88: Wot about ’im comin’ ter the bucks’ party Fridy night?
1960		Aus. Women’s Wkly 17 Feb. 13/4: The ‘gentlemen’ were invited at 4 p.m. for a buck’s party.
1985		B. Robinson Aussie Bull 11: Beware of the idiot whose advice at the bucks’ party before the wedding is - ‘On the honeymoon, mate, eat plenty of eggs and honey’ .
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] I worry about you [...] Not so much the peepshows but the bucks’ parties. What if the guys get out of hand?
2011		Sydney Morn. Herald 27 Dec. 🌐 Cowan was meant to be a guest at Mr Sanders’s bucks’ party yesterday.

(Aus.) a party for men only; a pre-nuptial ‘stag night’.

1979		G. Bottomley After the Odyssey 146: Sometimes they combined the Greek traditions with British-Australian pre-wedding rituals such as the ‘buck’s night’ for the groom and the ‘kitchen tea’ or ‘shower’ for the bride.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 26: The bucks night had been a pretty rorty affair.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 108: Marshall has his buck's night the night before the wedding. The dillbrains he is with get him on the slops and put him on a train.
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 5: She has a string of strippers for bucks’ night, hotels and clubs.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] Want to do a show, Friday? You can be warm-up bitch for a buck’s.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] ‘Ever since you came back from his buck’s night you’ve been acting strange.’ I’d unwittingly turned up at Alex’a bachelor party [etc.].

1. the rough (and by stereotpung, usu. Irish or black) part of town [sense 6].

1853		Yankee Notions May 140/1: There is a certain locality in Cincinnati. inhabited entirely by negroes, which has acquired the sobriquct of Bucktown, and in which, as may well be imagined, some curious scenes occur.
[1862		Dublin Eve. Mail 8 Sept. 4/2: The Irish and the Negroes in Cincinnati [...] The most serious disturbance was between the negro and irish residents of Bucktown].

2. (US black) Brooklyn, New York [buck v.³ (2)].

1992–2003		P. Atoon Rap Dict. 🌐 Bucktown (n) A neighborhood better known as the Brownsville section of Brooklyn used by Smif & Wesson and Black Moon.
1999		Mos Def ‘Brooklyn’ 🎵 I love my city, sweet and gritty in land to outskirts / Nickname Bucktown cuz we grown to outburst [...] And let this song be, playin loud in Long B / If you love Bucktown STRONGLY! / RAISE IT UP! / Brooklyn my habitat, the place where it happen at.

see separate entry.

see separate entries.

US, of a (young) man, to present oneself as a roisterer, a ‘buck’.

1861

N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 5 Oct. 3/3: There are several young pups [...] that buck around a good deal [...] and live fast.

a celebrated debauchee, whose excesses outpace those of his peers.

c.1595		Shakespeare Love’s Labour’s Lost IV ii: Truly, Master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least: but, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head.
1721		N. Ward Northern Cuckold in Misc. IV 3: Our Northern Blade Was dub’d a Buck of the first Head.
1741		Secret Hist. of Betty Ireland (9 edn) 14: Planting [...] a Pair of Horns on his Frontlet, and so make him appear a Buck of the first Head.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: A Buck of the first Head, One whose Gaiety surpasses that of his Companions. A Blood or Choice Spirit. There are in L`ondon diverse lodges or Societys of Bucks, formed in imitation of the free Masons. One was held at the Rose in Monkwell Street about the year 1750. The president is stiled the Grand buck.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 263: Here comes a Buck of the first cut, one who pretends to know every thing and every body.
[1837		N.Y. Dly Herald 24 May 2/2: It’s a devlish genteele place too — nobody goes there but what’s first cut].

a term of affection, aplied to a man.

1853

R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 166: You did well, my old buck-o’-wax; and, by Jove! we’ll have a bottle of port.

see separate entries.

(US) to show off.

1834

Ely’s Hawk and Buzzard (N.Y.) 21 June 21 4/1: It is possible that Mr. Richards may have acquired that sallow hue of complexion from undue exposure to the sun … Your correspondent, therefore, who talks deridingly of an ‘unbleached phiz’ [is unjust] … his wearing green spectacles … does not arise from ostentation, or a desire to cut a buck.

1. a general term of address, usu. with a sense of affection or familiarity.

1780		Universal Mag. 67 366/1: Philosophers we are, my old Buck, as honest as ever swore by Epicurus.
1791		H.B. Dudley Woodman 92: Give me your hand, my old buck — it’s a pleasanter thing to draw a cork than a sword.
1799		Sporting Mag. Aug. XIV 275/1: The Counsellor addressed him, ‘Well, my old buck; – so, I suppose you are one of those people who do not oft go to church?’.
1803		J. Kenney Raising the Wind I iii: plain: How’s my old friend and all the rest of the family? diddler: Wonderfully well, my old buck.
1824		W. Scott St Ronan’s Well (1833) 233: Come, none of your quizzing, my old buck.
1838		Thackeray Yellowplush Papers in Works III (1898) 264: Daw, my old buck, how are you?
1846		Thackeray Diary of C. Jeames de la Pluche in Works III (1898) 396: I call him, ‘Bareacres, my old buck!’ and I see him wince.
1855		W.G. Simms Forayers 136: How are you, old buck, this warm weather?
1873		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Little Mr. Bouncer 105: You’d like to smoke a pipe, old buck, I daresay [...] Old buck, would you like to pick a bit of pheasant?
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Feb. 6/1: ‘Yes, yes,’ spluttered the doctor, somewhat mollified; ‘your blow doesn’t quite suit, but if there’s anything more I can do for you – ’ ‘You can! you can! old buck!’ shouted Wright; ‘thim’s bee-yu-tiful daughters of yours, doctir. Give me won of thim!’.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 137: The Regulars had arranged a Send-Off for Old Buck, who was pulling out for Seattle.
1920		‘Sapper’ Bulldog Drummond 66: ‘Two alternatives, old buck,’ he remarked.

2. a man, usu. one viewed affectionately.

1773		Foote The Bankrupt III ii: Master Margin, come and give the old buck satisfaction.
1809		Horry & Weems Life of General F. Marion (1816) 35: He is a fine, honest, good-natured old buck.
1841		F.L.G. Swells Night Out n.p.: In Jessop, the proprietor, the green Sell will find a mentor and adviser, and the old buck an agreeable and witty companion.
1865		H.L. Williams Joaquin 130: The old buck himself, Joaquin.
1873		E. Eggleston Mystery of Metropolisville 243: He’d heern him tell as how as Ole Buck – the President, I mean – had ordered you let out.
1910		O. Johnson Varmint 15: Who’s the old buck, anyhow?
1935		D. King ‘White Meat’ in Spicy Adventure Stories Apr. 🌐 Don’t let this old buck frighten you.
1943		R. Brister ‘Rock-a-Bye Booby’ in Ten Detective Aces Sept. 🌐 Holy Hannah! How’s the old buck rate that?

3. one’s father.

1845

‘A Week in Oxford’ in Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Nov. 4/5: Sundry proposals are entertained for fresh attacks on ‘the old buck's bank,’ and consultations granted as to the wording of a letter best calculated to make him ‘bleed freely’.

4. see sense 3 above.

(US) simple, unadorned, lit. ‘naked’.

1955		R. Graziano Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 153: He is only a buck-ass private.
1960		W. Styron Set This House on Fire 402: A buck assed marine private from Columbus County N.C.
1962		(con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 14: You ain’t hardly a buck-ass private.
1965		(con. 1944) E.M. Nathanson Dirty Dozen (2002) 137: If I’d pushed Colonels around like you [...] I’d be a buck-assed Private.

(US) nude bathing.

1931		Atlantic City News 7 Aug. 4/3: Devotees of ‘buck bathing’ who dance in the nude in and out of the surf [DA].
1945		D. Stoddart Prelude to Night 21: Schoolboys from nearby sneak away to Davey's Lake [...] and go buck bathing in the clear cool water.
1953		D. Weiss Guilt Makers 32: We went buck bathing, just to cool off, and it was tantalizing, adventurous, and it would test me. I did not peek at her [...] and in the darkness we did not touch.

see separate entry.

(S.Afr./US) nervousness in the face of an unknown or new situation that may render one incapable of action.

[1889		Farmer Americanisms 92/1: Buck ague or buck fever — [...] the nervous shyness of deer and game of a similar kind supplies [the hunter] with a term to express the trepidation which at first seizes the young and inexperienced sportsman].
1906		(con. 1861) J.O. Casler Four Yrs in Stonewall brigade 27: Some of our men who, evidently, had the ’buck fever,’ commenced, without orders, firing some scattering shots.
1916		Hall & Niles One Man’s War (1929) 182: Whenever we take him near a dog of any kind, the dog gets buck fever and sets up a wail like a lost soul he gets.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 45: Did you ever get buck fever when you saw that bear coming your way?
1952		J. Blake letter 27 Jan. in Joint (1972) 31: I understand that buck fever is not unusual among convicts approaching release.
1979		S. King Dead Zone (1980) 284: He’s having buck fever.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 165: For a moment he couldn’t move [...] Had he agonized his way to that decision on five hundred sleepless nights only to be robbed of his option by a kind of buck-fever?

(UK Und.) an ageing lecher, an old roué.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Buck-fitches, c. old Leacherous, Nasty, Stinking Fellows.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

(UK juv.) a person with buck teeth.

2001

OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 buckhead n. derog. 1) A person with buck-teeth.

(orig. US) naked.

1928		J. Peterkin Scarlet Sister Mary 33: You ain’ to stand up buck naked like dat.
1939		W. Attaway Let Me Breathe Thunder (1940) 201: Thrown out on the street buck naked.
1945		C. Himes If He Hollers 221: I felt buck-naked and powerless, stripped of my manhood.
1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 132: Turn me loose so I can dress [...] You can’t take me to jail buck naked.
1968		J. Hersey Algiers Motel Incident 343: They [...] stripped them buck-naked before all them peoples up there.
1974		D. Goines Swamp Man 58: He made a sorry sight standing buck naked.
1982		S. King Running Man in Bachman Books (1995) 541: Many of the men were buck under their pants.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 65: He hauls Mr Studhunk outside and glues him buck naked to the hood of his caddy.
1992		D. Burke Street Talk 2 48: They got bucked last night and went jogging on the beach!
1999		Indep. Rev. 19 Nov. 13: ‘Was ah playing bongos buck naked at two in the morning?’ he asks.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 59: Standing there buck naked staring at it.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] A man lay face down, buck naked.
2017		R. Friedman Street Warrior 243: They stood buck naked in the tenement hallway trying to cover themselves.

see barberton n.

1. an American soldier, fighting in the Revolutionary War.

1783		P. Freneau ‘A N.Y. Tory’s Epistle’ in Hiltner Newspaper Verse (1986) 186: Why did not heaven [...] Teach me to take the true-born Buckskin side.
1787		Burns American War in Works (1835) 268/2: Cornwallis fought as long’s he dought, / An’ did the buckskins claw, man.
1814		P. Freneau ‘On the Conflagrations at Wash.’ in Amer. Poetry: the 19th Century I 9: Their capitol shall be emblazed! / How will the buckskins stand amazed, / And curse the day its walls were raised!’.
1823		J. Thacher Mil. Journal 72: The burlesque epithet of Yankee from one party, and that of Buckskin from the other .

2. a native of Virginia.

1810		M.L. Weems Life of G. Washington 7: A Virginian! ‘What! a buckskin!’ say they with a smile, ‘George Washington a buckskin! pshaw! impossible!’.
1825		J. Neal Brother Jonathan I 245: The Virginians are called Buckskins.
1835		H.C. Todd Notes 8: Buckskin is the nickname for Southerns and Westerns [DA].
1888		M.D. Woodward Checkered Years (1937) 1 Aug. 238: Steve and Dominic and Buckskin Jim are plowing.