buckler

Definitions

• One who bucklebuckles something.
• A kind of shield, of various shapes and sizes, held with a hand (usually the left) for protecting the front of the body. In the sword and buckler play of the Middle Ages in England, the buckler was a small shield, used, not to cover the body, but to stop or parry blows.
• (obsolete) A shield resembling the Roman scutum. In modern usage, a smaller variety of shield is usually implied by this term.
• (zoology) One of the large, bony, external plates found on many ganoid fishes.
• (zoology) The anterior segment of the shell of a trilobites.
• (nautical) A block of wood or plate of iron made to fit a hawse hole, or the circular opening in a half-port, to prevent water from entering when the vessel pitches.