Adj. (American University).—At Princeton College anything which is of
an intensive degree, good, excellent, pleasant or agreeable, is called
buck.
Verb (American).—1. To oppose; to run counter to. [Possibly a
corruption of butt, or from buck as applied to a horse.—See sense 2.]
2. (Western American.)—As applied to horses this term is used to
describe the action of plunging forward and throwing the head to the
ground in an effort to unseat the rider—a motion of which probably no
domesticated beast is capable, aside from the Texan miserable and
treacherous species of horse. A raw hand thus relates his
experience:—‘When I was told how hard he could buck, I only laughed, my
impression being that no pony standing on four legs could throw me off.
I mounted my new horse, and waving my bran new hat about my head,
galloped away in a dignified style. Suddenly the horse stopped. His
ears went back, and his hind legs went between his front. The motion
was a curious one. But I did not fall. Realizing that the man on his
back could ride a little bit, the pony got right down to business. My
stomach seemed to fly up into my mouth, and millions of stars floated
about my head. I am not prepared to state what kind of hold the pony
got on me, but I went sprawling on the ground, my nose making an
irrigating ditch. It was all done not more than one hundred yards from
where my girl was standing. I stuck on well, however, as the saddle,
blanket, gun and bridle came off with me. The wild yell that greeted my
exploit nearly drove me mad. While I spit the dirt and curses out of my
mouth, I thought that if I had that pony back I’d break him in or break
my head. It ran out on the prairie and joined the Government herd. When
an old-timer tried to fix things for me in front of my girl by saying,
“It’s no disgrace, pardnr, that horse can buck off a porus plaster,” I
thanked him from the bottom of my heart.’