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buckram

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buckram¹

  • /ˈbʌkɹəm/

Where it comes from

From Middle English bukeram (“fine linen”), from Anglo-Norman bokeram, from Old French boquerant, bougherant (“fine cloth”), bougueran, probably ultimately from Bokhara, a city in southeastern Uzbekistan.

noun buckrams

  1. uncountable, usually A coarse cloth of cotton, linen or hemp, stiffened with size or glue, used in bookbinding to cover and protect the books, in garments to keep them in the form intended, and for wrappers to cover merchandise. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me—
  2. uncountable, usually A crab that has just molted; a papershell.

verb buckrams · buckraming · buckramed · buckrammed

  1. transitive To stiffen with or as if with buckram.

buckram²

  • /ˈbʌkɹəm/

Where it comes from

Perhaps a back-formation from earlier buckrams, from buck + ramps, ramsh (“wild garlic, ramson”). Compare Danish ramsløg (“ramson”), Swedish ramslök (“bear garlic, ramson”).

noun buckrams

  1. A plant of species Allium ursinum, also called ramson, wild garlic, or bear garlic.

Translations

Every language

noun cloth

Françaisbougran
Русскийколенко́р kolenkór

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MLA

"buckram." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/buckram. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

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

Chicago

"buckram." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/buckram.

BibTeX
@misc{buckram_2026,
  title = {buckram},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/buckram},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}