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Glite Dictionary
bucking bronco

bucking bronco

1 7.5
A wild untrained horse that jumps and kicks to throw off its rider
  • noun
  • US
translation icon : caballo salvaje
  • The first day our tandem felt more like a bucking bronco than a bicycle—twisting, turning, skipping, and slamming as if it were trying to get us off of its back.
  • riding bucking broncos

Like I wanted to know what your thoughts and what you, how did you like 'cause I I found it to be a bit of a bucking Bronco.

Examples

  • He zeroes in on a five-year-old boy astride a bucking bronco.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • A horrific accident saw a rodeo rider killed on Friday at the Indian National Rodeo in Las Vegas, as a bucking bronco stepped on the head of a rider and then fell on him.

    Blog text (6)

  • Really. She's a bucking Bronco. Oh, there it is.

  • I had no experience with bucking broncos, so I was not familiar with the body language that precedes taking a fall, and there was a lot of luck in getting this image.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Yeah, Warren, bucking bronco.

    There's Something About Mary (1998)

  • The pajamas had two kinds of cowboys on them: one kind riding bucking broncos and the other kind roping.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • The smell of the steers and bucking broncos fills my nostrils.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • At the rodeo, the cowboy bravely climbed onto the bucking bronco, hoping to stay on for the full eight seconds.

  • Every year, participants try to impress the crowd by riding the wild bucking bronco during the rodeo competition.

  • The announcer warned the audience that the next contestant would be attempting to ride a particularly fierce bucking bronco.

Synonyms

bronco
vsbucking bronco
  • US
11 8.0

A wild or partly tamed horse used in rodeos

is more about violent bucking to unseat riders than general wildness
bronc
vsbucking bronco
  • Slang
6 9.3

A wild or partly tamed horse used in rodeos

is specifically a horse that bucks violently to try to throw off a rider
broncho
vsbucking bronco
  • US
1 9.9

A wild or partly tamed horse from western North America often used in rodeos

is defined by violent bucking aimed at throwing off the rider

Antonyms

schooling
  • Specialized
1 8.2

Training a horse to learn skills for riding or shows

Surface Forms

bucking bronco singular
bucking broncos plural

Morphology

buck + bronco

The noun phrase is directly compositional: 'bucking' is the present participle of 'buck' (to jump/throw with stiff legs) modifying 'bronco' (a rodeo horse), so the meaning "a bronco that bucks violently" follows straightforwardly. This participle+ noun construction is a common, productively interpretable pattern that a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to understand.

Etymology

Bucking bronco creates a vivid picture: bucking is the horse kicking up its back legs and bronco is a wild horse that tries to 'throw off its rider'. So the phrase means 'a wild or untrained horse' that bucks hard to 'throw off its rider'.