buckle, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

buckle v.

[SE buckle, to join]

1. to marry, to be married; to become a mistress [Partridge suggests 20C Aus. use, but it is in neither AND nor DNZE].

1594		Lyly Mother Bombie III iii: Good silly Stellio, we must buckle shortly.
1655		Mercurius Fumigosus 36 31 Jan.–7 Feb. 284: Let her be what she will quoth the Priest, bring her, and If I do not tie you as fast as Buckle and thong, let me never drink Ale super naculum again.
1689		‘Some Four Years Ago’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 89: This Morning she’s come, and would fain buckle gratis, / But she’s grown so fulsome a Wh–re.
1693		Dryden Juvenal VI 90: Is this an Age to Buckle with a Bride?
1700		‘The West Country Fairing’ Wit’s Cabinet 157: I long, Sweethert to wed thee, and merrily buckle too.
1724		A. Ramsay Tea-table Misc. (1733) I 83: Madge that was buckled to Steenie.
c.1733		‘My Jocky Blyth’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) V 203: Come then, and let us buckle to, [...] For her content I’ll instant wed.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 358: His uncle [...] declared himself well satisfied with the young man’s addresses, and desired that they might be buckled with all expedition.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 122: Could I believe [...] Or think that helen e’er will truckle, / And with a beaten champion buckle!
1791		‘Brother Rook’ Willy Wood & Greedy Grizzle 5: To prove me but a stupid ass, / For buckling thus [...] / A romping girl not worth a plack.
1815		‘The Unco Bit Want’ Garland of New Songs 26: I am a young lass in my prime [...] I think it is very fit time / To buckle mysel’ to a man.
1821		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 347/2: And Miss, fear not, will buckle too.
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel III 240: ‘Buckle them, my Lord Bishop, as fast as you can’ [...] The Bishop accordingly opened his book and commenced the marriage ceremony.
1844		D. Jerrold Story of Feather 164: ‘What, then, she doesn’t buckle to him yet?’.
1853		Exeter & Plymouth Gaz. (Devon) 19 Feb. 6/2: We’ve got a good sharp parson that can go the pace [...] he buckled them in no time.
1857		Trollope Three Clerks (1869) 535: We could have half a dozen married couples all separating, getting rid of their ribs, and buckling again, helter-skelter, every man to somebody else’s wife.
1879		London Standard 6 Dec. 2/1: The Red Church, Bethnal Green [...] Hundreds of vagrants [were] buckled in that particular edifice.
1894		Mirror of Life 21 July 3/1: ‘I've married Tim [...] I have not had a chance to write afore, cause it's now only two years since I got buckled’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 12: Buckled, married.
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 140: He no longer had an uncontrollable Desire to buckle up with those who wore Specs.
1923		P. MacGill Moleskin Joe 17: Wenches are always nice, but the nicest are them you’re not buckled to!

2. to understand.

1859, 1860

Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.

3. to arrest; usu. as buckled.

1873		Sl. Dict.
1888		‘Jack the Ripper’ letter Sept. to ed. of Central News Agency in Evans & Skinner Jack the Ripper (2001) 16-17: Dear Boss, I keep on hearing the police have caught me but they won’t fix me just yet. [...] I am down on whores and I shant quit ripping them till I do get buckled.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 27: I should stand a good chance of being buckled and getting a stretch.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 12: Buckled, [...] taken into custody.
1932		Sun. Mail (Brisbane) 13 Nov. 20/7: ‘Joe was buckled last night. He was all keyed up with angie and tried to take a twist out of a demon, he dug his heels in and it took three of them to lumber him.’ [...] Joe was under the influence of cocaine. He used insulting language to a detective, and resisted so violently when placed under arrest that it took the detective and two other officers to remove him to the watch house.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dictionary’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxii 7/1: buckled: To be caught out and arrested by the police.
1968		J. Alard He who Shoots Last 140: I keeps tellin’ dem I didn’t do it, but it wuz no use, dey buckles me.
1975		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 Apr. 44: When I got buckled they asked for two spot for the no-bake, but I put ’em on the arse bit for being big askers.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 245: buckle (v) Arrest. British prison slang since 1880 or earlier.
1993		Smith & Noble Neddy (1998) 146: He went straight to meet the Chinese and got buckled [arrested] for his trouble. He was charged with importing heroin and got 15 years for it.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [They] were buckled inside a clothing shop at Colac.

4. (US) to argue, to fight.

1970		Current Sl. V:3 4: Buckle, v. To argue about insignifcant things.
1978		J. Webb Fields of Fire (1980) 125: They know the bush and they can buckle for your dust.

5. (Scots teen) to collapse in laughter.

2020

G. Armstrong Young Team 119: We aw fuckin buckle [...] Even Finnegan manages a smile.

In compounds

buckle-beggar (n.)

a clergyman who performs irregular marriages; also attrib.

c.1700		Lord Fountainhill Diary in Larwood Bk Cleric Anecdotes 294: He after turn’d a buckle-beggar, i.e., one who married without license [F&H].
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 134: A hedge-parson, or buckle-beggar, as that order of priesthood has been irreverently termed.
1832		Belfast Commercial Chron. 14 July 4/3: The notorious buckle-beggar, the late Father Megarry.
1834		Roscommon Jrnl 4 Apr. 4/5: The late illustrious Friar or Priest Magary, so celebrated for his buckle-beggar exploits in the arena of illicit matrimonial mongering.
1840		Dublin Eve. Mail 10 June 3/1: Dr sadleir may [...] pronounce them to be man and wife together, and so might any buckle-beggar in the land.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1997		Share Slanguage.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

buckle bosom (n.) [SE buckle, to grapple, to engage/sense 3 above + bosom]

a constable, a catchpoll.

1622

J. Mabbe (trans.) Life of Guzman Pt I Bk I 63: They are [...] of a rascall kind of race; very Varlets, Buckle-bosomes, Collar-catchers: in a word they are Sergents and Catch-poles.

buckle-hammed (adj.) [SE buckle, to warp, to bend, to crumple + ham n.¹]

having crooked legs.

1629

Gaule Holy Madnesse in Retrospective Rev. (1821) 229: Say as you see, is he not mostly wry-neckt, crompe-shouldred, pale-fac't, thin-cheekt, hollow-eyed, hooke-nos'd, beetle-brow'd, purse-lipt, gaunt-belly'd, rake-backt, buckle-hamm'd, stump-legg'd, splay-footed, dry- fisted, and crooke-fingered .

In phrases

buckle down (v.) (also buckle in, buckle to) [ext. of SE buckle, to apply oneself vigorously]

(orig. US) to set to work, to apply oneself vigorously.

1712		J. Arbuthnot Hist. of John Bull 123: At last Esquire South buckled to, to assist his friend Nic.
1764		E. Chicken Collier’s Wedding 3: What Sports and Feasting do ensue, When such-like Mortals buckle to.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 243: [He] took the girl, and buckl’d to’t, / And fairly danc’d his hornpipe out.
1788		‘The Disappointed Maid’ Irish Songster 7: In naked buff, and patch quite rough, / I’d buckle to her in a trice.
1807		J.R. Shaw Life and Travels 37: So we buckled to it in our buff.
1840		‘The Hare with Many Friends’ in New Monthly Mag.’ (Jan./Mar.) 274: Devour it all! [...] Come, buckle to.
1841		Odd Fellow 11 Dec. 2/1: Let man forget his fellow-chum / And faithful rib, / And buckle down, morose and glum .
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 12: BUCKLE-TO, to begin at once, and with great energy.
1862		W. Cheadle Journal (1931) 23 Sept. 39: Buckle to again & go on for about 2 miles in the dark.
1870		H. Alford in Life (1873) 438: I [...] shall buckle to in earnest.
1887		E. Custer Tenting on the Plains (rev. edn 1895) 92: I was constantly mystified as I considered how our officers [...] could, as they expressed it, ‘buckle down’ to the dull, exhausting days of a monotonous march.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 93: It was a little bit strange buckling to after the easy life we’d led for the last few months.
1890		Sporting Times 15 Feb. 5/1: Do buckle to, and don’t talk so much.
1892		Whitstable Times 20 Feb. 6/5: Many a strapping fellow will not buckle down to work.
1900		Ade More Fables in Sl. (1960) 124: She refused to buckle down to Literary Work.
1910		Owen Johnson Varmint 203: You’ll have to buckle down and study.
1913		Day Book (Chicago) 7 Apr. 17/1: Just buckle in with a bit of a grin / [...] / Then take off your coat and go to it.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 124: When he had, as they put it, ‘cut out his nonsense and buckled down to work’.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 232: The recollection of what this bell could do when it buckled down gave me pause.
1938		S. Beckett Murphy (1963) 5: Soon he would have to buckle to and start eating, drinking, sleeping and putting his clothes on and off.
1950		Bennett, Clarke & Wilson Anancy Stories and Dialect Verse 61: Den me sey me want fe learn it to, / Me haffe buckle dung, / Screw up me mout and roll me y’eye / An foreign up me tongue.
1954		K. Amis letter 13 Dec. in Leader (2000) 415: Letter-writing and sitting on my arse this afternoon, and buckling to on the novel to-morrow.
1960		H. Pinter Caretaker Act II: But he won’t buckle down to the job.
1960		J. Boswell Ernie and the Rest of Us 140: I’ll have that guinea in no time, if we all buckle-to.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 236: Going to buckle down and get this high school crap over with.
1981		B. Hoy ‘Uncle George’ in Wright Cockney Dial. and Sl. (1981) 109: Britannia’s gawn right up the Swanee, / Wiv closed minces we foller the oafs. / We’re in bad two-an’-eights / Buckle to, mi ol’ mates / And for cryin’ aht lahd use yer loafs!