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. (Mining)
Defn: To break up or pulverize, as ores.
BUCK
Buck, n. Etym: [OE. buk, bucke, AS. bucca, bua, he-goat; akin to D.
bok, OHG. pocch, G. bock, Ir. boc, W. bwch, Corn. byk; cf. Zend b,
Skr. bukka. *256. Cf. Butcher, n.]
1. The male of deer, especially fallow deer and antelopes, or of goats, sheep, hares, and rabbits.
Note: 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. Brande & C.
2. A gay, dashing young fellow; a fop; a dandy. The leading bucks of the day. Thackeray.
3. A male Indian or negro. [Colloq. U.S.]
Note: The word buck is much used in composition for the names of antelopes; as, bush buck, spring buck. Blue buck. See under Blue. — Water buck, a South African variety of antelope (Kobus ellipsiprymnus). See Illust. of Antelope.