noun

• A metal clasp with a hinged tongue or a spike through which a belt or strap is passed and penetrated by the tongue or spike, in order to fasten the ends of the belt together or to secure the strap to something else.
  "He must be forging the buckle-screw, sir, now. […] Carpenter, when he's through with that buckle, tell him to forge a pair of steel shoulder-blades; there's a pedlar aboard with a crushing pack."
• A metal clasp with a hinged tongue or a spike through which a belt or strap is passed and penetrated by the tongue or spike, in order to fasten the ends of the belt together or to secure the strap to something else.

verb

• (transitive)
  "Iuſt. [i.e., the Lord Chief Justice, William Gascoigne] VVel, the truth is ſir Iohn, you liue in great infamy. / Falſt[aff]. He that buckles himſelfe in my belt cannot liue in leſſe."
• (transitive)
  "For this cauſe whẽ the faithfull find themſelues to haue ouercome Satan in one incounter by the grace of Chriſt, let them take good heede that they imagin not their battel to be at an end: but rather let them buckle themſelues to a new charge, and valiantly aduance themſelues to handſtrokes againe."
• (transitive)
  "[T]ake my advice, and marry in the firſt place vvhere vve can find a curate; or make uſe of our friend the licentiate, vvho vvill buckle you handſomely."
• (intransitive, figurative)
  "Sir John diſdainfully looking at him, ſaluted him vvith theſe VVords, Farevvel Sir Knave, (for it is to be noted that it is common vvith him to term many honeſt Men ſo). My Brother anſvvered, Sir, You are no leſs. VVhereat one of Sir John’s Men buckled to fight vvith him. But Sir John ſtayed his Man."

verb

• (transitive)
  "[R]eaſon doth buckle and bovve the Mind vnto the Nature of things."
• (transitive)
• (intransitive)
  "And as the vvretch vvhoſe feuer-vveakned ioynts, / Like ſtrengthleſſe hinges buckle vnder life, / […] euen ſo my limbes, / VVeakened vvith griefe, being novv enragde vvith griefe, / Are thrice themſelues: […]"
• (intransitive)
  "It is amazing that he has never buckled after so many years of doing such urgent work."

noun

• (countable) A distortion; a bend, bulge, or kink.
  "We can’t use that saw any more. It’s got a buckle in its blade."
• (countable) A distortion; a bend, bulge, or kink.
• (countable, Canada, US, baking) Usually preceded by a descriptive word: a cake baked with fresh fruit (often blueberries) and a streusel topping.
• (countable, obsolete) A curl of hair, especially a kind of crisp curl formerly worn; also (countable, uncountable), the state of hair being curled in this manner.
  "The greatest beau at our next county sessions was dressed in a most monstrous flaxen periwig, that was made in king William's reign. The wearer of it goes, it seems, in his own hair when he is at home, and lets his wig lie in buckle for a whole half year, that he may put it on upon occasion to meet the judges in it."