bucke, the body of a chariot; ‘The axletree was massie gold, the bucke was massie golde’, Golding, Metam., ii. 107; fol. 16 (1603). In E. Anglia ‘buck’ is still in use for the body of a cart or wagon; esp. the front part, see EDD. (s.v. Buck, sb.6 3); also pronounced bouk (Bouk, sb.1 5). See NED. (s.v. Bulk, sb.1 3. c).
buckle, to prepare oneself, esp. by buckling on armour; ‘To teach dangers to come on by over-early buckling towards them’, Bacon, Essay 21. Buckle with, to cope with, join in close fight with, 1 Hen. VI, i. 2. 95; Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iv. 3. 19. Also buckle, to bow, give way, 2 Hen. IV, i. 1. 141; buckled, doubled up, Witch of Edmonton, ii. 1. 4.
bud, said of children; or used as a term of endearment. King John, iii. 4. 82; ‘O my dear, dear bud’, Wycherley, Country Wife, ii. 1 (Mrs. Pinchwife). A transferred sense of bud (of a flower).
†bud; ‘ ’Tis strange these varlets . . . should thus boldly Bud in your sight, unto your son’, Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, iv. 2 (Thomas). Meaning unknown.
budge, lamb’s fur. Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. vii. 65. Budge-bachelor, a bachelor or younger member of a company, who wore a gown trimmed with budge on Lord Mayor’s day (NED.). Hence, budge doctor, a consequential person, Milton, Comus, 707.
buff ne baff, never a word; ‘Saied to hym . . . neither buff ne baff’ Udall, tr. of Apoph., Socrates, § 25. Caxton, Reynard (Arber, 106). Buff nor baff is a phr. in use in Leicestersh., see EDD. (s.v. Buff, sb.5 6).
buffe, to bark gently; ‘Buffe and barke’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Diogenes, § 140. A Yorksh. word, see EDD. (s.v. Buff, vb.3 1).
buffin, a coarse cloth in use for gowns of the middle classes. Massinger, City Madam, iv. 4 (Milliscent); Eastward Ho, i. 1 (Gertrude). See NED.
buffon (búff-on), a buffoon. B. Jonson, Every Man, ii. 3. 8. F. bouffon.
bufo, a term in alchemy. B. Jonson, Alchem., ii. 1 (Subtle). ‘The black tincture of the alchemists’ (Gifford). Only occurs in this passage. L. bufo, lit. a toad.