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buck up

English

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buck up

interjection

  1. idiomatic Cheer up; take courage; take heart.
  2. dated, idiomatic Hurry up; make haste.

verb bucks up · bucking up · bucked up

  1. idiomatic, intransitive To become encouraged, reinvigorated, or cheerful; to summon one's courage or spirits; to pluck up courage. I realized I needed to buck up and tackle the problem head-on.
  2. idiomatic, transitive To encourage; to hearten. I knew I had to try and buck up the rest of my team as well.
  3. idiomatic, intransitive To do better. You better buck up or you'll never make it.
  4. dated, idiomatic, intransitive To dress oneself up smartly; compare (obsolete) buck ("a fop, dandy")
  5. colloquial, idiomatic, transitive To pass on to higher authority for resolution. See also pass the buck. He started bucking up everything to management when he didn't get a raise.
  6. obsolete To hurry up. 'Now' said Cameron, 'we must buck up; it's getting late. Now about the child, Boshy: she must come with us, you see.'
  7. idiomatic, slang, transitive To hit or fight (someone).

Translations

Every language

verb to become encouraged

中文打起精神 dǎqǐ jīngshén

verb to encourage or hearten

Русскийвстряхну́ть vstrjaxnútʹ, оживи́ть oživítʹ, приободри́ть priobodrítʹ

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MLA

"buck up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/buck%20up. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

buck up. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/buck%20up

Chicago

"buck up." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/buck%20up.

BibTeX
@misc{buck_up_2026,
  title = {buck up},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/buck%20up},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}