bucking

verb

present participle of buck
1
as in yanking
to move or cause to move with a sharp quick motion the car bucked and stalled

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance
2
as in resisting
to refuse to give in to bucked the trend to outdo everyone else and just wore the same clothes they had in previous years

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in handing
to shift possession of (something) from one person to another buck each box to the next person in line, and the last person will stack them in the storeroom

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of bucking So bucking that trend was a sound choice. — Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 17 June 2026 But certain players will also be bucking the trend. — David Betancourt, New York Times, 13 June 2026 In one inning, the Royals had reversed a trend and were well on their way to bucking more. — Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 6 July 2026 Healthcare is a cyclical sector that's bucking the broader downbeat market and benefiting from the shift away from high-flying tech. — Paulina Likos, CNBC, 7 July 2026 One of the elephants, 51-year old Swarna, began running around her enclosure in a circle, like a bucking bronco. — Hana Kiros, The Atlantic, 3 July 2026 Nurses’ associations say those management decisions are bucking the intent of the higher staffing standards. — Grant Stringer, Mercury News, 29 June 2026 Comcast, which has pay-TV and streaming challenges, has also been the subject of frequent deal chatter despite bucking the odds with a strong 15-year run as a home for both distribution and content. — Dade Hayes, Deadline, 29 June 2026 The movie has since earned a 94% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes and enjoyed the rare feat of increasing its domestic box office during its second weekend, bucking the typical trend for horror releases. — Anthony Thompson, USA Today, 30 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bucking
  1. yanking
  2. resisting
  3. handing
  4. jerking
  5. opposing
  6. passing
  7. pulling
  8. lurching
Verb
  • Haaland’s winning goal came after another bout of yanking and pulling; the striker tried to free himself by slapping the defender’s arm away, eventually just carrying on regardless.
    — Jack Lang, New York Times, 5 July 2026
  • Now, with the federal and state government yanking back plenty of that funding and directly barring the city from enacting some of its more aggressive climate plans, Higgins is left with a narrow road to tread toward progress.
    — Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 1 July 2026
Definition of yanking
Verb
  • The Hansons both face felony second-degree battery charges and misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, while Bone faces misdemeanor charges of obstructing government operations, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
    — Grant Lancaster, Arkansas Online, 9 July 2026
  • Under the banner of resisting the West, Khamenei defied sanctions to build up the country’s nuclear program, its arsenal of missiles and its network of militant allies across the region.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 9 July 2026
Definition of resisting
Verb
  • Golden State finished with a season-high 15 steals after handing Atlanta back-to-back losses to start the Dream's 0-4 road trip.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 4 July 2026
  • Voice assistants already complete purchases and arrange food deliveries, without handing control back to the user.
    — Alex Gudilko, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of handing
Verb
  • Watching their relationship devolve (never more so than when their sperm donor, a rakish, motorcycle-driving restaurant owner played by Mark Ruffalo, enters the scene) is most definitely a tear-jerking experience, as is the film’s final scene.
    — Liam Hess, Vogue, 28 June 2026
  • Some were petty — like Reese committing a foul against Clark, then jerking her head back, impersonating Clark as a flopper.
    — Candace Buckner, New York Times, 27 June 2026
Definition of jerking
Verb
  • Everyone needs to find someone who hugs them like Messi hugs people — teammates, coaches, opposing players, young fans.
    — Culture Critic, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2026
  • In January, the MTS passed a resolution opposing the expansion of Waymo’s robo-taxis, calling for more local control over the deployment of autonomous vehicles.
    — Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 July 2026
Definition of opposing
Verb
  • Everyone with even a passing interest in the event knew this.
    — Culture Critic, Los Angeles Times, 8 July 2026
  • Likewise, communications with others will be like two ships passing in the night.
    — Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 8 July 2026
Definition of passing
Verb
  • And often, data centers are pulling from municipal water supplies, Anisfeld said.
    — Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 5 July 2026
  • Haaland’s winning goal came after another bout of yanking and pulling; the striker tried to free himself by slapping the defender’s arm away, eventually just carrying on regardless.
    — Jack Lang, New York Times, 5 July 2026
Definition of pulling
Verb
  • The same boom-and-bust dependency on the oil industry, whose profits were now funnelled through the regime and its allies, kept the country lurching from one crisis to the next.
    — Armando Ledezma, New Yorker, 30 June 2026
  • The old guard of the Democratic Party suffered another body blow when three socialist congressional candidates in New York with anti-Israel platforms swept to victory, lurching the party even further to the left.
    — Joe Battenfeld, Boston Herald, 25 June 2026
Definition of lurching

Browse Nearby Words

buckets
bucking
bucking up
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Bucking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bucking. Accessed 10 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on bucking

Nglish: Translation of bucking for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Commonly Misspelled Words

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

One-Word Oxymorons: Bittersweet, Spendthrift, and More

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 10
See More

Popular

See More

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
banana-mirrored
Contradictory Words Quiz Pick out which word means one thing…and the opp...
See All