1A flat, typically rectangular frame with a hinged pin, used for joining the ends of a belt or strap.

1. 1.1 A similarly shaped ornament on a shoe.
   black shoes with ornate buckles

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Her shoes were opened toed, and had a gold buckle over the top, very dainty and feminine.
   • Accessories include hats, bags, a parasol, a fox fur and, shoes, including gold court shoes with diamanté buckles dating from 1900.
   • She sat on the bed and battled against the clock to do up the buckles on her shoes.
   • Long silken stockings ran from his knees into his tiny little shoes with silver buckles.
   • So if your buttons are gold, then wear a gold buckle and a gold watch.
   • On her feet were white silk slippers with rhinestone buckles, and over her arm she carried a white shawl.
   • The boots were fabulous, adorned with buckles and grommets.
   • She said big sellers there are stilettos and T-straps; anything with chains, buckles or unusual ornaments; and red shoes or metallic designs.
   • Details include ribbons, personalized buckles and jewellery, patterned macro T-shirts and V-neck pullovers.
   • He's wearing the right gear, too: a dark blue jacket, a black T - shirt, pin-striped trousers and patent leather shoes with shiny silver buckles.
   • You should no more grieve for the rest than for a buckle lost from your first shoe, or for your lesson book which will be lost when you are old.
   • And she had a new pair of black patent-leather shoes, with gold buckles, and she had white opaque tights.
   • And, in fact, the buckles on his wedding shoes for the day of his marriage were worth two million pounds or so, $3 million by today's standards.
   • Personal ornaments - strap-ends, buckles, brooches, jewellery and the like - suggest that what was true for the lordly classes was true also for the populace as a whole.
   • The uniform shoes the girls wore were plain white, with silver buckles.
   • Henriette fiddled with the buckle on her dance shoe.
   • To complete the outfit, I wore a pair of slip on shoes with a huge buckle, which I'd also found in the Cancer Care shop.
   • Black moccasins and a pair of slippers with gold-coloured buckles were shoved against the wall.
   • North Yorkshire Police are now scanning CCTV tapes to try to identify the attacker, who was smartly dressed with distinctive shiny shoes which had silver or gold buckles.
   • This entails making the costumes for the bride, groom and their families, and slippers and copper buckles, all of which are essential in the Javanese wedding ensemble.

2North American with modifier A cake made with fruit (typically blueberries) and having a streusel topping.

1with object Fasten or decorate with a buckle.

1. 1.1buckle upno object Fasten one's seat belt in a car or aircraft.
   it is advisable to buckle up as some of the mountain roads require skilful manoeuvring

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Bradsher reports that four-fifths of those killed in roll-overs were not belted in, even though 75 percent of the general driving population now buckles up regularly.
   • Kerry motorists have been warned to buckle up or face the consequences as the penalty points system has been extended to cover the non-wearing of seat belts since Monday.
   • On every trip, cabin crew have given clear pre-landing instructions for people to remain buckled up and in their seats until the aircraft comes to a complete standstill.
   • But only a Jaguar can afford to sport a system this advanced - for the rest of us - buckle up.
   • Two clicks could be heard from the back seat as the girls buckled up.
   • Surveys conducted earlier this year indicated that many motorists just ‘forgot’ to buckle up after stopping for a short time, in car parks, at waste drop off centres and even at fast food outlets.
   • More drivers are buckling up more often, according to a seat belt survey conducted last week.
   • And with that the captain reminded everyone to buckle up.
   • Instead, he had buckled up tight and prayed that the air bag worked, screaming at the top of his lungs as he sped towards the impending collision.
   • So, buckle up, happy flying and I think you'll find a little education goes a very long way toward reducing your fears.
   • Everyone needs to be buckled up properly: older kids in seat belts, younger kids in booster seats and toddlers in child safety seats.
   • Fortunately, we had both buckled up and our seat belts restrained us from flying through the windshield, which would have been an even worse thing that could happen.
   • May I have your attention please, we are now entering Tokyo Airport please buckle up this will be a bumpy ride.
   • Perhaps most irritating of all was the nagging seat-belt warning that persisted for an annoying extra few beeps even after you had buckled up.
   • I buckle up and bring the 550-hp supercharged V - 8 in life singing sweetly just behind my right shoulder.
   • Sometimes a change of altitude helps, although usually this type of turbulence is short-lived, and we prepare by having everyone, including our flight attendants, sit down and buckle up.
   • A new law requiring all new minibuses to install seat-belts and all passengers to buckle up is set to come into effect this year.
   • Increase your odds of walking away: drive the speed limit and buckle up!
   • You know, this is a tough decision, because everyone in the aviation industry does agree that buckling up into your own seat is the safest way for everyone to go: adults, babies, toddlers, everyone.
   • An alert of impending rough air would give pilots time to warn passengers and flight attendants to buckle up and take steps to reduce turbulence effects.

2no object Bend and give way under pressure or strain.

1. 2.1with object Bend (something) out of shape.
   a lorry backed into the wall and buckled the gate

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The intense heat buckled the corrugated steel exterior.
   • An armored vehicle climbed the home's marble stairs and buckled the walls.
   • Thames Water is resurfacing the road after the burst pipe buckled a 100 ft stretch of the carriageway about six inches deep.
   • A motorist who claims her car wheel was buckled by a pothole in a road has been told by Bradford Council she will not receive compensation.
   • The driver was quite apologetic, and my bike wasn't damaged (didn't even buckle the wheel), so I'm chalking it up to experience.
   • The problem is, the car door is often buckled and wedged shut by the crash.
   • The front wheel is buckled and the back wheel is bent.
   • She struck the frigate, buckling the port 30 mm gun deck, crushing the sea-boat sponsons and damaging the bridge wing.
   • Mountains formed, swelling and then buckling the altered landscape.
   • The roads were teeth-rattlingly bad and the BMW buckled a front wheel.
   • Water poured from the pipe and buckled the road making it impassable.
   • However, when I came to tune the gears, I realised how badly buckled the rear wheel was.
   • Railings around the foredeck had been buckled and the deck plating of the tip of the foredeck had been buckled.
   • And in January the company caused traffic chaos for almost a week when a one of their pipes burst and buckled a 100 ft stretch of the Great Western Way.
   • ‘It had buckled the whole car and you have got to think about the amount of solid metal there is in a BMW,’ Ms Donaldson said.
   • Peat extraction focuses around the more northerly Levels by the River Brue, where the treacherous ground still buckles the roads.
   • Meanwhile, work has yet to start on the Calderdale side of the border, where a landslide above the road has buckled the tarmac and pushed over fence posts.
   • The students first asked for monetary compensation of the month's rent after a leak from the washing machine buckled the floorboards, making them feel unsafe about living in the flat.
   • Twisted metal and buckled bulkheads bore witness to destructive forces of the British torpedoes that had struck on the freezing April night.
   • The door was ripped in half, the ceiling was punctured in a dozen places, a gaping hole was left in the floorboards and the window frame was buckled under the impact of the explosion.

   Synonyms

   curve, crook, make crooked, make curved, flex, angle, hook, bow, arc, arch, warp, contort, distort, deform
2. 2.2 (of a person) suffer a psychological collapse as a result of stress.
   a weaker person might have buckled under the strain

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Despite their joy at becoming parents again, the couple are buckling under the strain, with Ellie stopping work to care for the babies and Joe struggling to run the firm alone.
   • Some au pair arrangements work out well, but there have been many cases of inexperienced au pairs with little or no language buckling under the pressure, and children not responding well to constant changes.
   • Recently, though, I've started to buckle under the pressure of going green.
   • After two days of damaging headlines he finally buckled and declared he would not challenge.
   • And it's because, you know, they believe that if they can put enough pressure on you that you'll buckle and that you'll give them what they want.
   • Let me pretend to be their most dedicated and principled spokesman, the one who won't buckle no matter what concessions the Chancellor delivers from his sack.
   • While the country expects, our pallid hero will buckle under the weight, following in the footsteps of a long line of unlucky losers.
   • Although Sanchez stubbornly resisted, last weekend she finally buckled.
   • As Leslie admitted yesterday, he had even contemplated suicide as he buckled under the weight of the pressure.
   • He buckled under that pressure and he panicked.
   • The son was trying to keep things positive, but after a month in the hospital, his father buckled under the stress and returned home.
   • His feet touched the ground and he knees buckled under the sudden weight gain.
   • The time has come, and I may buckle under the pressure.
   • We don't buckle under pressure, we just get stronger.
   • He maintains he is feeling as good as ever and by the sound of his summer tales, he could buckle from sheer exhaustion before his left knee does from a shortage of ligament stability.
   • Back then he had buckled, begged for his life, done whatever he was ordered to do just to survive.
   • Yet he never buckled, never once cracked and instead showed a strength of character that even I, his friend for years, didn't know he possessed.
   • Joshua, 7, was unable to cope at the local school, and James's daughter Catherine was buckling under the strain of fighting to get his needs met.
   • These buildings may have crumpled under the pressure of the quake, but I know for sure that the people will not buckle that easily.
   • There is only one end to an explosion in debt - an explosion in misery as families buckle under the weight of repayments.