subs. (old).—In pl. = fetters: see DARBIES.
1594. J. LYLY, Mother Bombie. Good silly Stellio, we must BUCKLE shortly.
1693. DRYDEN, Juvenal, vi., 37. Is this an age to BUCKLE with a bride?
1731. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, lxvii. Who … declared himself well satisfied with the young man’s addresses, and desired that they might be BUCKLED with all expedition.
1822. SCOTT, The Fortunes of Nigel, xxxii. BUCKLE them, my Lord Bishop, as fast as you can…. The Bishop accordingly opened his book and commenced the marriage ceremony.
1857. A. TROLLOPE, The Three Clerks, xlvi. We could have half a dozen married couples all separating, getting rid of their ribs, and BUCKLING again, helter-skelter, every man to somebody else’s wife.
2. (old).—To bend; to yield to pressure; to give way.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BUCKLE, to Bend or give Way. He’ll buckle to no man, he won’t Yield to Stoop to any Man.
1839. W. J. THOMS, Anecdotes and Traditions, 54. Ninepences are a little BUCKLED.
3. (thieves’).—To arrest; TO SCRAG (q.v.). Hence BUCKLED = arrested.
TO BUCKLE DOWN, verb. phr. (common).—To settle down; to become reconciled to; to KNUCKLE DOWN (q.v.).
1874. J. HATTON, Clytie, III. iv. ‘But you do not BUCKLE DOWN to your position,’ said Cuffing … ‘you wrangle, you higgle.’
TO BUCKLE TO verb. phr. (colloquial).—To undertake; to grapple with; to slip in; to work vigorously.
1557. TUSSER, Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, xcvi., 84, 187 (E.D.S.). Then purchase some pelfe, by fiftie and three: or BUCKLE thy selfe, a drudge for to bee.
1663. BUTLER, Hudibras, I., ii., 926.
| And fitting it for sudden fight, | |
| Straight drew it up, t’ attack the Knight; | |
| For getting up on stump and huckle, | |
| He with the foe began to BUCKLE. |
1712. ARBUTHNOT, The History of John Bull, IV., viii. At last Esquire South BUCKLED TO, to assist his friend Nic.
1883. PAYN, Thicker than Water, xxvii. Of course it could never have been taken up as a serious occupation; the way you BUCKLED TO at it, as I told Mr. Payton, was something amazing.
1889. Modern Society, 19 Oct., 1302 (‘How the Nobility live in Germany’). Though, as a rule, courteous to ladies at dinner, when a course is served all BUCKLE TO, and conversation is at an end. Each gentleman forgets his fair neighbour, and minds only number one. Between the courses, when nothing better is on, they converse, and always everything is served à la Russe.
