▪ I. huckle, n.
(ˈhʌk(ə)l)
Forms: 6 hokyll-, hocle-, hokkel-, huckel-, hockle-(bone), houkel, 6– huckle.
[In form, a dim. of huck n.1 Cf. the combinations huckle-back, huckle-bone, with the synonymous huck-back, huck-bone.]
1. The hip or haunch. (See also quot. 1855.)
| a 1529 Skelton E. Rummyng 45 The bones of her huckles, Like as they were with buckels Togyther made fast. 1541 R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. I iij b, How many bones ar in y⊇ huckles? Answere. After the veryte there is but one, howbeit after dyuers partyes of it there are thre. 1561 Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 7 If the disease were in ether of the houkels or shoulders. 1663 Butler Hud. i. ii. 925 Getting up on Stump and Huckle, He with the Foe began to buckle. 1708 Lond. Gaz. No. 4402/4 A black Mare..branded TM. below the Huckle on the near Side. 1711 E. Ward Quix. I. 295 Tho' he hurt her Haunch and Huckle. a 1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia, Huckles, the hips. 1855 Ramsbotham Obstetr. Med. 10 The Coccyx is called vernacularly the huckle or knuckle. |
† 2. ? The hock of a quadruped. Obs.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 459 In the middle of the horns there is a little branch standeth out like a knob, or as a huckle in the hinder-part of a Beasts leg. |
3. Comb. huckle-back, a hump-back; huckle-backed a., hump-backed.
| a 1652 Brome Eng. Moor iii. iii. Wks. 1873 II. 48 Of all Features and shapes, from the huckle-back'd Bum-creeper To the streight spiny Shop-maid in St. Martins. 1764 T. Bridges Homer Travest. (1797) I. 72 Ulysses..drove his broomstick with a thwack Upon Thersites' huckle-back. 1851 S. Judd Margaret xvii. (1871) 147 Diversities..that gave a wavy huckle-backed character to the entire field. |
▪ II. † huckle, v.1 Obs.
[f. huck v. + -le iterative suffix.]
intr. To haggle in bargaining.
| c 1620 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 53 They will him sell, and I'le not huckling stand. 1644 Bulwer Chirol. 161 After much base huckling, and rising by little and little. 1655 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. i. v. 220 Wilt thou stand..[and] huckle with him for a penny? |
▪ III. huckle, v.2 dial.
[f. huckle n.]
To bend the body, to stoop: see quots.
| 1840 Spurdens Suppl. Forby (E.D.S.), Huckle, to bend down with pain. 1854 W. Gaskell Lect. Lanc. Dial. 13 In Lancashire, a person who stoops is said to ‘huckle’. |