BUCKHORSE, a smart blow or box on the ear; derived from the name of a celebrated “bruiser” of that name.
BUCKLE, to bend; “I can’t BUCKLE to that,” I don’t understand it; to yield or give in to a person. Shakespere uses the word in the latter sense, Henry IV., i. 1; and Halliwell says that “the commentators do not supply another example.” How strange that in our own streets the term should be used every day! Stop the first costermonger, and he will soon inform you the various meanings of BUCKLE.—See Notes and Queries, vols. vii., viii., and ix.
BUCKLE-TO, to bend to one’s work, to begin at once, and with great energy.
BUDGE, to move, to inform, to SPLIT, or tell tales.
BUFF, to swear to, or accuse; to SPLIT, or peach upon. Old word for boasting, 1582.
BUFF, the bare skin; “stripped to the BUFF.”
BUFFER, a dog. Their skins were formerly in great request—hence the term, BUFF meaning in old English to skin. It is still used in the ring, BUFFED meaning stripped to the skin. In Irish cant, BUFFER is a boxer. The BUFFER of a railway carriage doubtless received its very appropriate name from the old pugilistic application of this term.
BUFFER, a familiar expression for a jolly acquaintance, probably from the French, BOUFFARD, a fool or clown; a “jolly old BUFFER,” said of a good humoured or liberal old man. In 1737, a BUFFER was a “rogue that killed good sound horses for the sake of their skins, by running a long wire into them.”—Bacchus and Venus. The term was once applied to those who took false oaths for a consideration.
BUFFLE HEAD, a stupid or obtuse person.—Miege. German, BUFFEL-HAUPT, buffalo-headed.
BUFFY, intoxicated.—Household Words, No. 183.