buckle

1. 1.

   fasten with a buckle or buckles

   Synonymsclasp

   Antonymsunbuckle

   Broaderfasten
2. 2.

   fold or collapse

   “His knees buckled”

   Synonymscrumple

   Broadercollapse
3. 3.

   bend out of shape, as under pressure or from heat

   “The highway buckled during the heat wave”

   Synonymsheavewarp

   Broaderchange surface

   Narrowerlift

1. 1.

   fastener that fastens together two ends of a belt or strap; often has loose prong

   Broaderfastener

   Narrowerbelt buckle

   Partsprong
2. 2.

   a shape distorted by twisting or folding

   Synonymswarp

   Broaderdistorted shape

Other forms of buckle

plural

buckles·

past tense

buckled·

present participle

buckling·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about buckle

What does buckle mean?

buckle means "fasten with a buckle or buckles". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in buckle?

buckle has 2 syllables: buc-kle. The stress falls on "buc". In IPA it is /ˈbʌkəl/.

What is another word for buckle?

Close synonyms include clasp, crumple, heave, warp, warp. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of buckle?

The recorded antonyms are unbuckle.

Is buckle a common word?

buckle is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.