sawbuckn.
/ˈsɔːbʌk/, U.S. /ˈsɔˌbək/, /ˈsɑˌbək/ U.S.
1.
a. = buck n.7 Also as adj. = having the form of x.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > work-benches, seats, etc. > [noun] > work-bench > for sawing
Jack1580
sawing trestle1611
horse1718
saw-horse1775
buck1817
trestle1823
sawing-bench1845
sawing horse1846
sawing stool1846
wood-horse1849
sawbuck1855
transom1885
1855 M. Thompson Doesticks xxxv. 322 Macduff..stands over the conquered Macbeth in a grand saw-buck attitude.
1862 Ann. Rep. Commissioner Patents 1861: Agric. 141 in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (37th Congr., 2nd Sess.: House of Representatives Executive Doc. 39) V The sheep is then laid upon his back in a kind of saw-buck.
1869 ‘M. Twain’ Innocents Abroad vi. 58 The saddles were peculiar... They consisted of a sort of saw-buck, with a small mattress on it.
1877 R. J. Burdette Rise & Fall of Mustache 308 You might as well tell a joke to a sawbuck as to his wife.
1906 W. Churchill Coniston 390 He was standing with his foot upon the sawbuck and the saw across his knee.
1920 S. Lewis Main St. vii. 83 In back yards their sawbucks stood in depressions scattered with..flakes of sawdust.
1948 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 10 July 83/2 I'd roped everything around the ranch—calves, hounds, horses, fence posts, sawbucks.
b. In full, sawbuck (pack)saddle. A pack-saddle shaped like a sawbuck.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > keeping or management of horses > horse-gear > [noun] > saddle > types of saddle
mail-saddle1360
trotter-saddle1381
panel1393
loadsaddle1397
packsaddle1398
limber-saddle1480
pillion1480
side-saddle1493
steel saddle1503
pilgate1511
mail pillowc1532
stock-saddle1537
pad1556
sunk1568
trunk-saddle1569
soda1586
mail pillion1586
running saddle1596
Scotch saddle1596
postilion saddle1621
pad-saddle1622
portmanteau-saddle1681
watering saddle1681
cart-saddle1692
demi-pique1695
crook-saddle1700
saddle pad1750
recado1825
aparejo1844
mountain saddle1849
somerset1851
pilch1863
cowboy saddle1880
sawbuck (pack)saddle1881
western saddle1883
cross-saddle1897
centre-fire1921
McClellan1940
poley1957
1881 E. W. Nye Bill Nye & Boomerang 67 This summer, however, I will get me a little blue jackass and put a sawbuck on his back.
1907 S. E. White Arizona Nights (U.K. ed.) ii. 12 We skirmished around and found..a sawbuck saddle with kyacks.
1913 Outing Jan. 425/1 The most practical equipment for pack animals is the ordinary crosstree or sawbuck pack saddle for all-round use.
1933 F. H. Cheley Camping Out 461 While the Government has adopted the aparejo as its pack saddle, the cross-tree or sawbuck is the best one for ordinary use.
1938 M. Thompson High Trails of Glacier National Park 138 If you are going on a camping trip you utter an instinctive protest as your packer cinches up the ‘sawbuck’ packsaddle and loads his animal.
2. slang.
a. Ten dollars; a ten-dollar note. Also double saw-buck, variant of double saw n. at double adj.1 and adv. Compounds 1.In allusion to the x-shaped (Roman x = 10) ends of the sawyer's buck: cf. also buck n.8 dollar.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > sum of money > [noun] > specific sums of money > ten dollars
sawbuck1850
dime1958
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > paper money > foreign banknotes > [noun] > U.S. > ten-dollar bill
ten1642
ten1829
x1837
tenner1845
sawbuck1850
ten-spot ladybird-
1850 Knickerbocker 36 297 Send me the two double ‘saw-bucks’.
1852 Oregon Statesman 13 Nov. 1/1 Dod rabbit it, there goes another ‘saw-buck’, on the plag'uey jack.
1857 O. W. Wight Quinland II. 166 I know fifty fellows..that for one end of a saw-buck a-piece, would be on hand with a whole company of voters at their heels.
1870 J. H. B. Nowland Early Reminisc. Indianapolis 315 In former years he was ever ready to..risk what he called a ‘sawbuck’ (a ten dollar note), on his success.
1933 D. Runyon Furthermore (1938) v. 81 He once tries to put the bite on Sorrowful for a sawbuck.
1973 J. Wambaugh Blue Knight ii. 41 I gave him a ten, which was just like folding up a sawbuck and sticking it in his arm. He'd be in the same shape twelve hours from now.
b. A ten-year prison sentence. Also double saw-buck, variant of double saw n. at double adj.1 and adv. Compounds 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > [noun] > sentence or term of > specific term of (year(s))
year1874
rest1882
two-spot1885
trey1887
swy1924
sawbuck1925
handful1930
taxi1930
nickel1953
dime1967
1925 Flynn's 25 Mar. 511/1 Sawbuck,..a ten-year sentence.
1929 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 13 Apr. 50/4 A prisoner with ten years brings in a saw-buck.
1938 D. Castle Do your Own Time iii. 28 ‘I'm doing two saw-bucks.’ ‘Oh, yeah? Whatever that is.’ ‘Two ten spots. Twenty years.’
1945 L. Shelly Hepcats Jive Talk Dict. 24 Double sawbuck, a twenty-year jail sentence.
1950 H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 61/1 Double-saw, double-sawbuck, a prison sentence of twenty years.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1982; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1850