Congress is attempting to pass the buck on federal funding for education.
President Harry Truman kept a sign on his desk that read: “The buck Stops Here.”
Jamming Netanyahu at the UN will buck him up among the right.
And if she does buck that tide, it does not necessarily mean that it is end of the Warren for President boomlet.
In the tiny seaside town of Yacahts, Oregon, buck Henderson is ready to die.
"Spoils the hoof to put the knife on the sole, buck," said the smith.
"Come over to the saloon, buck, and have one on me," said Jasper.
All of which Andy heard, and he knew that buck Heath intended him to hear them.
buck would turn on his heel and stand, towering, in the door.
Andy chose the careful insult which he would throw in buck's face.
"male deer," c.1300, earlier "male goat;" from Old English bucca "male goat," from Proto-Germanic *bukkon (cf. Old Saxon buck, Middle Dutch boc, Dutch bok, Old High German boc, German Bock, Old Norse bokkr), perhaps from a PIE root *bhugo (cf. Avestan buza "buck, goat," Armenian buc "lamb"), but some speculate that it is from a lost pre-Germanic language. Barnhart says Old English buc "male deer," listed in some sources, is a "ghost word or scribal error."
Meaning "dollar" is 1856, American English, perhaps an abbreviation of buckskin, a unit of trade among Indians and Europeans in frontier days, attested in this sense from 1748. Pass the buck is first recorded in the literal sense 1865, American English:
The 'buck' is any inanimate object, usually knife or pencil, which is thrown into a jack pot and temporarily taken by the winner of the pot. Whenever the deal reaches the holder of the 'buck', a new jack pot must be made. [J.W. Keller, "Draw Poker," 1887]Perhaps originally especially a buck-handled knife. The figurative sense of "shift responsibility" is first recorded 1912. Buck private is recorded by 1870s, of uncertain signification.
1848, apparently with a sense of "jump like a buck," from buck (n.1). Related: Bucked; bucking. Buck up "cheer up" is from 1844.
"sawhorse," 1817, American English, apparently from Dutch bok "trestle."
noun
verb
Related Terms
bang for the buck, big bucks, the buck stops here, fast buck, pass the buck, sawbuck
[all senses ultimately fr buck, ''male animal, usually horned''; the semantics are complex: for example, the first sense is said to be fr the fact that a buck deer's skin was more valuable than a female's skin; the other senses have most to do with male behavior of a butting and strutting sort]
