Meanings
present singular third person buckles to · participle present buckling to · participle past buckled to · past buckled to
- idiomaticinformalintransitiveSynonym of buckle down (“to apply oneself to study, or a task or work; to focus on or take a serious attitude towards something; to put forth the needed effort”).
1 more example
Then the sergeant let us out, and introducing us to a pile of wood and saws and axes, informed us that when this had been cut up into firewood we should get our breakfast. He sat at the door of his kitchen watching, and seeing there was nothing else for it we buckled to and soon had the job done; when we were admitted to the kitchen and given a really good meal.
1929, D[onald] J[ohn] Munro, “Nemesis”, in The Roaring Forties and After, London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., →OCLC, page 38Synonyms: buckle down
Synonyms & antonyms
verbSynonym of buckle down (“to apply oneself to study, or a task or work; to focus on or take a serious attitude towards something; to put forth the needed effort”).
Origin
Cite this entry
buckle to. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/buckle%20to
“buckle to.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/buckle%20to. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “buckle to,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/buckle%20to.
Source: buckle to on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.