[f. prec. sb.; but cf. F. boucler; branch III may be from the F. word, which has the sense ‘to bulge’ (as a wall).]
I. With reference to BUCKLE sb. 1.
1. trans. To fasten with a buckle. Often with prep. on, to, or adv. on, up, together.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1645. Nailynge the speres, and helmes bokelynge.
c. 1400. Roland, 694. Herd bukilis his helme, and gothe out sone.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VIII. v. 17. Wyth pople tre hattis buklit on thair heid.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. ii. 158. Iust. You liue in great infamy. Fal. He that buckles him in my belt, cannot liue in lesse.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4156/4. Stolen … a … Mare … buckled up with a French Buckle.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, II. iv. 131. A servant on horseback would buckle on my box.
1805. Southey, Madoc in Azt., xvi. Buckle this harness on.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. VII. 221. About his limbs The mail was buckled.
† b. To fasten (up) in any way; also fig. To buckle in: to limit, enclose. Obs.
1460. Quia Amore Langueo, 51, in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 152. Bocled my feet, as was her wille, with scharpe naile.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. ii. 140. The stretching of a span buckles in his summe of age.
1792. A. Wilson, Watty & Meg. Up my claes and cash I buckled.
2. trans. With allusion to the fastening on of armor: To equip, prepare (for battle, an expedition, etc.). Chiefly refl., and now only fig.: To gird oneself, apply oneself resolutely to (a task).
1570. Levins, Manip., 185. To Buckle him, parare se.
1574. trans. Marlorat’s Apocalips, 31. Everie man … must buckle himselfe to a painfull kind of life.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. viii. 12. Buckling soone himselfe, gan fiercely fly Upon that carle.
1611. W. Sclater, Key (1629), 326. No maruaile if Angels so desirously buckle themselues to prie hereinto.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. vi. § 16. Cartwright buckled himself to the employment [refuting the Rhemish Transl. of the N. Test.].
1730. T. Boston, Mem., IX. 270. Where I thought I was best buckled.
1824. Dibdin, Libr. Comp., 368. Now buckles himself to the uninterrupted perusal of the instructive text.
b. intr. (for refl.) in same sense.
1563. Bp. Sandys, in Strype, Ann. Ref., I. xxxv. 398. Whereat one of Sir Johns men buckled to fight with him.
1623. Sanderson, 12 Serm. (1637), 132. Before wee either eate or drinke, or buckle about any worldly busines.
1625. Bacon, Delayes, Ess. (Arb.), 525. To teach dangers to come on, by ouer early Buckling towards them, is another Extreme.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxi. § 43. The Epicure buckles to Study, when Shame … shall make him uneasy.
1757. Chesterf., Lett., cccxx. IV. 90. Those who have a great deal of business must … buckle to it.
1877. Lytteil, Landmarks, IV. x. 248. Their husbands and brothers must buckle to the fight.
c. To buckle to: to set to work, apply oneself vigorously.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull (1727), 107. ’Squire South buckled too, to assist his friend Nic.
1746. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 21. I have shook off idleness, and begun to buckle to.
1812. W. Taylor, in Robberds, Mem., II. 375. I cannot buckle to, until this business of the Museum is determined.
1884. in J. A. H. Murray, in 13th. Addr. Philol. Soc., 4. He buckled to at once, learned in a month or so enough Iroquois for present needs.
3. a. trans. To join closely. b. intr. (for refl.) To close, come to close quarters; to grapple, engage. Const. with (an adversary); also with advbs. together, in, rarely to. Obs. or dial.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Macc. iv. 14. They buckled together, and the Heithen were discomfited.
1543. Grafton, Contn. Harding, 455. The erle … folowed his enemyes … that … he myght fight and buckel with theim before they came to London.
1576. Fleming, trans. Caius’ Dogs, in Arb., Garner, III. 255. Unable to buckle with the dog that would fain haue a snatch at his skin.
1650[?]. Don Bellianis, 198. A man that had been going to buckle with death.
1752. Hume, Pol. Disc., X. 189. The whole armies were thus engag’d, and each man closely buckl’d to his antagonist.
† c. To adhere resolutely to. Obs. rare.
1793. Roberts, Looker-on (1794), II. 338. I resolved to buckle to my tenets to the last extremity.
† d. trans. (ellipt.) To grapple with, engage, ‘tackle.’ Obs.
a. 1605. Montgomerie, Flyting, 154. Pedler, I pittie thee sa pinde To buckle him that beares the bell.
4. trans. To unite in marriage. humorous or dial. Cf. splice.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-T. Misc. (1733), I. 28. An ye wad gi’s a bit land Wee’d buckle us e’en the gither.
1755. Smollett, Quix. (1803), II. 50. Our friend the licentiate, who will buckle you handsomely.
1796. Macneill, Will & Jean, I. Soon they loed, and soon were buckled.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xxvii. Dr. R. who buckles beggars for a tester and a dram of Geneva.
b. intr. To unite oneself in wedlock.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal’s Sat., vi. 37. Is this an age to buckle with a bride?
1806. Train, Poetical Reveries, 64 (Jam.). Ask’d her … Gin she wadna buckle too.
1823. Lockhart, Reg. Dalton, III. 163 (Jam.). May … is the only month that nobody in the north country ever thinks of buckling in.
II. With reference to BUCKLE sb. 3.
† 5. To fasten or retain in curl. Obs.
1721. Bailey, Buckle … to put into buckles as hair.
1789–96. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 561. Their hair … they buckle up in a very agreeable manner.
III. To bend, warp.
6. trans. To warp, crumple, bend out of its plane. Now chiefly techn.: To bend a bar or surface (under longitudinal pressure) into a double curve; as ‘to buckle a saw, or the wheel of a bicycle or tricycle.’ Formerly also fig.
c. 1525. in Thoms’ Anecdotes (1839), 54. Ninepences are a little buckled to distinguish in their currancie.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. 18. Reason doth buckle and bowe the mind unto the nature of things.
1658. Ford, Witch of Edm., II. i. I am … like a bow—buckled and bent together.
1854. N. & Q., I. IX. 576/1. An awkward person, working incautiously with a saw, will probably … buckle it.
1868. Daily Tel., 3 July, 7/6. It [a gunshot] glanced off and struck the 15-inch portion … buckling, bending, and breaking the inner bars.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 58. It would buckle the mast.
b. intr. To bend under stress or pressure. † Of persons: To bend, stoop, double up (obs.).
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 141. Whose Feauer-weakned ioynts, Like strengthlesse Hindges, buckle vnder life.
1637. Pocklington, Altare Chr., 154. His knees may not buckle to Baal.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 214. Where ever they find the Work buckle.
1700. I. Brome, Trav., I. (1707), 38. We were enforced … to stoop, and buckle almost double.
1851. H. Melville, Whale, xiii. 66. The two tall masts buckling like Indian canes in land tornadoes.
Mod. The wheel of his tricycle has buckled.
† 7. fig. To give way, submit; to cringe, truckle. Obs. exc. dial.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 260. Outwardly they … seeme to crouch and buckle.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 17 Dec. The Dutch, as high as they seem, do begin to buckle.
1703. Savage, Lett. Antients, lxxii. 212. Consider, how many great Nations … they have … forc’d to Buckle.
1864. E. Capern, Devon Provinc., ‘To make him buckle’ is To make him yield.
IV. Comb., as † buckle-beggar (Sc.), a clergyman who performs irregular marriages, a hedge-priest; † buckle-bosom, a catchpoll, constable.
c. 1700. Ld. Fountainhill, Diary, in Larwood, Bk. Cleric. Anecd., 294. He after turn’d a buckle-beggar, i. e. one who married without licence.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xvii. A hedge-parson, or buckle-beggar … sate on the Duke’s left.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., I. 63. Buckle-bosomes, Collar-catchers: in a word, they are Sergeants, and Catch-poles.
