online medical dictionary | definition of buck

1. The male of deer, especially fallow deer and antelopes, or of goats, sheep, hares, and rabbits.

A male fallow deer is called a fawn in his first year; a pricket in his second; a sorel in his third; a sore in his fourth; a buck of the first head in his fifth; and a great buck in his sixth. The female of the fallow deer is termed a doe. The male of the red deer is termed a stag or hart and not a buck, and the female is called a hind.

2. A gay, dashing young fellow; a fop; a dandy. "The leading bucks of the day." (Thackeray)

3. A male Indian or negro.

The word buck is much used in composition for the names of antelopes; as, bush buck, spring buck. Blue buck. See Blue. Water buck, a South African variety of antelope (Kobus ellipsiprymnus).

Origin: OE. Buk, bucke, AS. Bucca, bua, he-goat; akin to D. Bok, OHG. Pocch, G. Bock, Ir. Boc, W. Bwch, Corn. Byk; cf. Zend bza, Skr. Bukka. 256. Cf. Butcher.

The beech tree. Buck mast, the mast or fruit of the beech tree.

A frame on which firewood is sawed; a sawhorse; a sawbuck. Buck saw, a saw set in a frame and used for sawing wood on a sawhorse.

1. To copulate, as bucks and does.

2. To spring with quick plunging leaps, descending with the fore legs rigid and the head held as low down as possible; said of a vicious horse or mule.

1. To soak, steep, or boil, in lye or suds; a process in bleaching.

2. To wash (clothes) in lye or suds, or, in later usage, by beating them on stones in running water.

3. <chemical>

To break up or pulverize, as ores.

Origin: OE. Bouken; akin to LG. Buken, Dan. Byge, Sw. Byka, G. Bauchen, beuchen; cf. OF. Buer. Cf. The preceding noun.

(01 Mar 1998)