buckle (lit. sense ‘fasten with a buckle’ is freq.; also in fig. context Troil. II. ii. 30, Mac. V. ii. 15)
1.
“buckle
in,” to limit
AYL. III. ii. 141
“the stretching of a
span Buckles in his sum of age.”
2.
to join in close
combat “with”
1H6 I. ii. 95
“In single combat thou
shalt buckle with me,”
IV. iv. 5, V. iii. 28; also with
“blows” as obj.
3H6 I. iv. 50 (Qq).
3.
to bend “under” stress or
pressure
2H4 I. i. 141
“whose fever-weaken'd
joints . . . buckle under life.”
