Interjection
- (idiomatic) Cheer up; take courage; take heart.
- (idiomatic, dated) Hurry up; make haste.
Verb
(third-person singular simple present bucks up, present participle bucking up, simple past and past participle bucked up)
- (idiomatic, intransitive) To become encouraged, reinvigorated, or cheerful; to summon one's courage or spirits.
- I realized I needed to buck up and tackle the problem head-on.
- (idiomatic) To encourage or refresh; to hearten.
- I knew I had to try and buck up the rest of my team as well.
- (idiomatic, colloquial) 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.
- He just bucked everything risky up to management.
- Instead of dealing with the customer's complaint himself, he just bucked it up to his boss.
Usage notes
- In the transitive senses 2, 4 the object may appear before or after the particle. If the object is a pronoun, then it must be before the particle.
