Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A clasp for fastening two ends, as of straps or a belt, in which a device attached to one of the ends is fitted or coupled to the other.
  • noun An ornament that resembles this clasp, such as a metal square on a shoe or hat.
  • noun An instance of bending, warping, or crumpling; a bend or bulge.
  • intransitive verb To fasten with a buckle.
  • intransitive verb To cause to bend, warp, or crumple.
  • intransitive verb To become fastened with a buckle.
  • intransitive verb To bend, warp, or crumple, as under pressure or heat.
  • intransitive verb To give way; collapse.
  • intransitive verb To succumb, as to exhaustion or authority; give in.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bend; bow.
  • To curl; become wrinkled; shrivel up.
  • To yield assent; agree: with to: as, I can't buckle to that.
  • To bend to something; apply one's self with vigor; engage in with zeal: with to: as, “go, buckle to the law,”
  • To enter upon some labor or contest; struggle; contend: with with.
  • To bend; curl; shrivel as by the application of heat.
  • noun A clasp consisting of a rectangular or curved rim, with one or more movable tongues secured to the chape at one side or in the middle, and long enough to rest upon the opposite side: used for fastening together two straps or belts or the ends of the same strap, or for some similar purpose.
  • noun In heraldry, same as arming-buckle.
  • noun An iron loop for fastening the blade to the frame of a wood-saw.
  • To do up (the hair) in curlpapers; curl; crimp. See buckle, n., 3.
  • To fasten with a buckle or buckles.
  • To prepare for action of any kind (a metaphor taken from buckling on armor previous to engaging in battle); hence, to set vigorously to work at anything: with a reflexive pronoun.
  • To join in battle.
  • To confine or limit.
  • To join together; unite in marriage.
  • To marry.
  • noun A bend, bulge, or kink, as in a saw-blade.
  • noun A contorted expression of the face.
  • noun Any curl of hair, especially a long curl carefully arranged, and turned toward the head, worn by women in the eighteenth century.
  • noun The condition of being curled, as of hair.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To bend permanently; to become distorted; to bow; to curl; to kink.
  • intransitive verb To bend out of a true vertical plane, as a wall.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To yield; to give way; to cease opposing.
  • intransitive verb To enter upon some labor or contest; to join in close fight; to struggle; to contend.
  • intransitive verb to bend to; to engage with zeal.
  • noun A device, usually of metal, consisting of a frame with one more movable tongues or catches, used for fastening things together, as parts of dress or harness, by means of a strap passing through the frame and pierced by the tongue.
  • noun A distortion bulge, bend, or kink, as in a saw blade or a plate of sheet metal.
  • noun A curl of hair, esp. a kind of crisp curl formerly worn; also, the state of being curled.
  • noun rare A contorted expression, as of the face.
  • transitive verb To fasten or confine with a buckle or buckles.
  • transitive verb To bend; to cause to kink, or to become distorted.
  • transitive verb To prepare for action; to apply with vigor and earnestness; -- formerly, generally used reflexively, but by mid 20th century, usually used with down; -- .
  • transitive verb Scot. To join in marriage.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To distort or collapse under physical pressure; especially, of a slender structure in compression.
  • verb intransitive, figuratively To give in; to react suddenly or adversely to stress or pressure (of a person).
  • verb intransitive To yield; to give way; to cease opposing.
  • verb obsolete, intransitive To enter upon some labour or contest; to join in close fight; to contend.
  • verb To buckle down; to apply oneself.
  • noun countable A clasp used for fastening two things together, such as the ends of a belt, or for retaining the end of a strap.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English bokel, from Old French boucle, from Latin buccula, cheek strap of a helmet, diminutive of bucca, cheek.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From a frequentative form of buck ("to bend, buckle"), of Dutch Low Saxon or German Low German origin, related to Dutch bukken ("to stoop, bend, yield, submit"), German bücken ("to stoop, bend"), Swedish bocka ("to buck, bow"), equivalent to buck +‎ -le. Compare Middle Dutch buchelen ("to strive, tug under a load"), German dialectal aufbückeln ("to raise or arch the back").

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Examples

  • This buckle is absolutely beautiful -- so many delicious blueberries!

    Blueberry Buckle Laura 2008

  • This buckle is like a moist cake, loaded with fruit and topped with a smattering of crumbs to create a nice crisp topping.

    Bites from other Blogs | Baking Bites 2009

  • A blueberry buckle is a type of cake that is so laden with fruit that it can actually buckle under its weight.

    Bites from other Blogs | Baking Bites 2009

  • The minute I read that her favorite description of a blueberry buckle is “one giant blueberry muffin” I knew I had found my recipe.

    Archive 2008-07-01 Laura 2008

  • It is also superior to the whole grain buckle I made, although that is not surprising as this is far more decadent and less virtuous!

    Archive 2008-07-01 Laura 2008

  • It is also superior to the whole grain buckle I made, although that is not surprising as this is far more decadent and less virtuous!

    Blueberry Buckle Laura 2008

  • The minute I read that her favorite description of a blueberry buckle is “one giant blueberry muffin” I knew I had found my recipe.

    Blueberry Buckle Laura 2008

  • Here's another reason to worry about recent signs that the U.S. dollar is again heading south: A slumping dollar could grant much-needed relief to Yankee-baiter Hugo Chávez, whose presidency is beginning to buckle from a shortage of the greenbacks he needs to pay for imports and to keep the national oil monopoly running.

    Chávez's Cash Crunch 2009

  • Nashville, Tennessee, is sometimes called the buckle of the Bible Belt because it is home to the national offices of the Southern Baptist Convention, The National Association of Free Will Baptists and the United Methodist Church's publishing house.

    R.T. Eby: Kentucky Bible Belt Patchwork Politics 2008

  • The great ironworks adorn it like a row of precious stones, and its buckle is a whole city with castles and cathedrals and great clusters of houses.

    Further Adventures of Nils 1911

Comments

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  • A buckle is a type of cake made in a single layer with berries added to the batter. It is usually made with blueberries. The topping is similar to a streusel, which gives it a buckled or crumpled appearance.

    February 6, 2008

  • A contranym: as a verb construction of the noun buckle, which is a device for clasping a belt together, it means "to secure, tighten, hold"; otherwise, it means "to weaken, collapse". (Wikipedia)

    June 6, 2008