Brewer's: Buck-basket

A linen-basket. To buck is to wash clothes in lye; and a buck is one whose clothes are buck, or nicely got up. When Cade says his mother was “descended from the Lacies,” two men overhear him, and say,

“She was a pedlar's daughter, but not being able to travel with her furred pack, she washes bucks here at home.” (2 Henry VI., iv. 2.) (German, beuchen, to steep clothes in lye; beuche, clothes so steeped. However, compare “bucket,” a diminutive of the Anglo-Saxon buc.)

Related Content Allusions Foreign Words and Phrases Latin and Greek Word Elements Names: Their Origins and Meanings Old Testament Names Mythology Ancient Greek Literature & Mythology The Bible (King James version) The Koran (translation by J. M. Rodwell) Shakespeare's Plays Tales from Shakespeare (Charles and Mary Lamb) Frequently Misspelled Words Frequently Mispronounced Words Easily Confused Words Writing & Language