buckle

name

1. A surname originating as an occupation for a maker or seller of buckles.

noun

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Probably from Middle English bukklen, bokelen (“to arch the body”), from Middle French boucler (“to bulge”, literally “to take the shape of a shield boss”), perhaps from the same ultimate origin as Etymology 1 above, or perhaps related to Middle Low German bockelen (“to bang out curves in metal”), German buckeln (“to bend over, hunch”). In some senses, possibly from buck (“to bend, yield, buckle”) + -le (frequentative suffix).

1. A distortion; a bend, bulge, or kink.

   “We can’t use that saw any more. It’s got a buckle in its blade.”

2. A distortion; a bend, bulge, or kink.
3. Usually preceded by a descriptive word: a cake baked with fresh fruit (often blueberries) and a streusel topping.
4. A curl of hair, especially a kind of crisp curl formerly worn; also (countable, uncountable), the state of hair being curled in this manner.

   “The greatest beau at our next county sessions was dressed in a most monstrous flaxen periwig, that was made in king William's reign. The wearer of it goes, it seems, in his own hair when he is at home, and lets his wig lie in buckle for a whole half year, that he may put it on upon occasion to meet the judges in it.”

   “For vvhat's a VVoman, vvhen her Virtue's gone? / A Coat vvithout its Lace; VVig out of Buckle; / A Stocking vvith a Hole in't.”

verb

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Probably from Middle English bukklen, bokelen (“to arch the body”), from Middle French boucler (“to bulge”, literally “to take the shape of a shield boss”), perhaps from the same ultimate origin as Etymology 1 above, or perhaps related to Middle Low German bockelen (“to bang out curves in metal”), German buckeln (“to bend over, hunch”). In some senses, possibly from buck (“to bend, yield, buckle”) + -le (frequentative suffix).

1. To cause (something) to bend, or to become distorted.

   “[R]eaſon doth buckle and bovve the Mind vnto the Nature of things.”

   “Throw all their ſcandalous malice upon me? / 'Cauſe I am poor, deform'd and ignorant, / And like a Bow buckl'd and bent together, / By ſome more ſtrong in miſchiefs then my ſelf?”

2. To curl (hair).
3. Of a thing (especially a slender structure under compression): to collapse or distort under physical pressure.

   “And as the vvretch vvhoſe feuer-vveakned ioynts, / Like ſtrengthleſſe hinges buckle vnder life, / […] euen ſo my limbes, / VVeakened vvith griefe, being novv enragde vvith griefe, / Are thrice themſelues: […]”

   “And thus by placing Collers vvhere ever they find the VVork buckle, they (as aforeſaid) vvith Sharp Tools, tender touches, ſomevvhat a looſe and fine String, vveak Bovv, and great care and diligence vvork the vvhole Cilinder dovvn as ſmall as they liſt, either vvith Moldings or other VVork upon it, as beſt likes them.”

4. Of a person: to (suddenly) cease resisting pressure or stress; to give in or give way, to yield.

   “It is amazing that he has never buckled after so many years of doing such urgent work.”

   “Mr. Gray did tell me to-night, for certain, that the Dutch, as high as they seem, do begin to buckle; and that one man in this Kingdom did tell the King that he is offered £40,000 to make a peace, and others have been offered money also.”