Forms: 3–4 boceler, 4 bookeler, 4–5 bocler, bock-, bokeler(e, bokler, buclere, bukler, -are, 6 bouc-, buccler, 7 bucklar, 6– buckler. [a. OF. boucler, bucler (mod.F. bouclier), repr. a Lat. type *bucculārius adj., ‘having a boss,’ f. buccula: see BUCKLE sb.]
1. A small round shield; in England the buckler was usually carried by a handle at the back, and ‘used not so much for a shield as for a warder to catch the blow of an adversary’ (Fairholt, s.v. Buckler), but sometimes it was larger, and fastened by straps to the arm. Sometimes wrongly applied to any kind of shield. Also attrib.
a. 1300. K. Alis., 1190. Laddes, That sweord and boceleris hadde.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 558. A swerd and a bocler baar he by his side.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 42. Bokelere, pelta, ancile, parma.
1570. Florio, 1st Fruites, 17 b. What weapon is that buckler? A clownish dastardly weapon.
1611. Bible, 1 Chron. v. 18. Men able to beare buckler and sword.
1659. Pearson, Creed (1839), 280. He brought the bucklers stamped with the pictures of Cæsar into Jerusalem.
1760. Gray, Corr. (1843), 207. A pave … is a very large buckler … big enough to cover the tallest man.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. 12. The buckler was of an oblong and concave figure, four feet in length.
1813. Scott, Trierm., II. xvi. Each knight … Take buckler, spear, and brand.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, I. VII. 222. Ajax … upheld A buckler like a rampart.
2. fig. A means of defence; protection, protector.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 265. Þe bookeler of þis goostly fiȝt is a man to holde his pees in tyme.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. xiii. 71. Sufficient bokeler aȝens this assailing.
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xvii[i]. 1. My buckler, ye horne of my health, and my proteccion.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IV. 961. His country’s buckler, and the Grecian boast.
1857. C. Brontë, Professor, I. iii. 37. On a buckler of impenetrable indifference.
3. Anat. (see quots.)
[1611. Cotgr., Bouclier de l’estomac, The triangular gristle that grows to the bottome of the breast-bone, and from the middle thereof hangs over the stomacke.]
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg. Commyng fro the boucler of the stomacke vnto the share bone.
a. 1648. Digby, Closet Open. (1677), 126. Bones of rosted or boiled Beef … the Ribs, the Chine-bones, the buckler Plate-bone.
1706. Phillips, Buckler of beef, a Piece cut off from the Surloin.
4. In various technical senses: a. (see quots.)
1674. Petty, Disc. R. Soc., 115. Let the same [Cylinder] … be covered with a moveable Head (such as in pressing of Pilchards they call a Buckler).
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Buckler of a cask denotes a moveable head, whereby to compress the contents of it. In this sense we say, a buckler of pilchards.
1872. Fraser’s Mag., XV. 221. Afterwards the fish are … packed in wooden hogshead casks and pressed … as closely as possible together by pressing stones and bucklers.
b. Naut. (see quots.)
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, xxxi. The cables were not yet unbent or bucklers shipped.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 101. Bucklers, pieces of elm plank barred close against the inside of the hawse-holes to prevent the water from coming in. Those used at sea, denominated Blind Bucklers, have no aperture; but those used … at anchor, and called Riding Bucklers, are made in two pieces … having a hole in the middle, large enough to admit the cable.
c. Anat., Zool., etc. Variously applied to the hard protective covering of parts of the body of different animals, as of the armadillo, the ganoid fishes, and some crustacea; spec. the anterior segment of the shell of the trilobites.
1828. Stark, Elem. Nat. Hist., II. 171. Alima, Leach. The body and tail extremely elongated, as well as the shell or buckler.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXV. 232/1. This buckler [of the trilobites] has much analogy with the carapace of Apus.
1845. Dr. Baird, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. xiii. 153. Copepoda … envelope consisting of a buckler, enclosing head and thorax.
1854. H. Miller, Footpr. Creat., iv. (1874), 43. All the ganoids of the period … have dermal bucklers placed right over their true skulls.
1855. Owen, Skel. & Teeth, 5. In the armadillo … the trunk is protected by a large buckler of this bony armour.
† 5. Phrases (sense 1): To play at bucklers, at sword and buckler: to fence; see also SWORD. To take up the bucklers: to enter the lists, present oneself as a champion. To deserve to carry the buckler: (with negative expressed or implied) to be worthy to be remotely compared with, = mod. ‘to be fit to hold a candle to.’ To carry away the bucklers: to come off winner. To give, lay down, yield the bucklers: to own oneself beaten. Obs.
a. 1500. Rel. Ant., I. 83. iiij and xxte. oxon playing at the sword and bokeler.
1592. Greene, Disput., Wks. 1881–3, X. 222. Giuing you the bucklers at this weapon, let me haue a blow with you at another.
1593. Tell-trothe’s N. Y. Gift, 30. That could play at bucklers So soone as she was past her cradell.
1607. Topsell, Serpents, 644. Severus side carryed away the bucklers.
1640. Bp. Hall, Episc., I. § 11. 48. When he can … prove it not Apostolike … we shall give him the Bucklers.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., I. lix. (1739), 109. The Clergy took up the Bucklers, and beat both King and Commons to a Retreat.
1642. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., 47. One that deserves to carry the Buckler unto Sampson.
1654. Gataker, Disc. Apol., 3. I shal herein willinglie yeeld him the bucklers;… I confess, he hath the better of me.
1679. Prance, Addit. Narr. Pop. Plot, 45. After much bandying on every side, the Jesuite was fain to lay down the Bucklers.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., II. 61. John dying before he could make a reply … Dr. Franc. White took up the bucklers.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 31, ¶ 3. They fought at Sword and Buckler.
6. Comb., as buckler-maker; also buckler-beak, a fossil ganoid with a beak-shaped upper jaw; buckler-fern, the genus Aspidium; † buckler-hand, the left hand; buckler-head, the fossil fish Cephalaspis; buckler-headed, having a head like a buckler; buckler-mustard, Biscutella auriculata; buckler-play, -playing, -player, fencing, a fencer; buckler-thorn, Rhamnus Paliurus aculeatus.
1882. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. iii. 441. The *buckler ferns (Lastrea dilatata) of themselves forming a splendid shade.
1677. Hobbes, Homer, 238. Weari’d was thereby his *buckler-hand.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 587. In the Cephalaspis (or *buckler-head).
1415. in York Myst., Introd. 23. *Bukler-makers.
1483. Cath. Angl., 36. A Bock[el]ere maker, peltarius.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorell’s B. (1843), 9. Bokeler makers, dyers, and lether sellers.
a. 1560. Rolland, Crt. Venus, IV. 598. Bot *buklar play was thair sport most frequent.
1722. De Foe, Hist. Plague (1840), 47. Singing of Ballads, Buckler play, or such like causes of Assemblies of People, be utterly prohibited.
1448. Shillingford, Lett. (1871), 68. Ever stonde yn defence as a *bokeler-player.
1468. Medulla Gram., Gladiatura, a *bokeler pleyng.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 115. I knowe no Englishe name for it [Rhamnus]. But it maye be called ether Christes thorne or *buklars thorne.
1706. in Phillips; hence in Bailey, Johnson, etc.
