Now only Sc. and dial. Forms: 1–3 búc, 2–4 buke, 3–4 book, 3–6 bouke, 5 bowke, 6 buike, 7 buick, 8–9 buik, 4– bouk. [OE. búc belly = OS. bûc, Du. buik, OHG. bûh, bûch, MHG. bûch, mod.G. bauch belly, ON. bûk-r trunk of the body:—OTeut. *bûko-z. The prevailing sense in ME. is the same as in ON., from which it may have been taken. As early as 15th c. this word was confounded with BULK sb., which afterwards usurped most of its senses, and has superseded it in literary use. The modern dial. and Sc. bouk seems to be partly a survival of ME. bouk, partly the regular descendant of ME. bolk, BULK.]
† 1. The belly, paunch or abdomen. Obs.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom. (1846), II. 270. Þat husel is … betwux toðum tocowen, and into þam buce asend.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 25. Þe heo wulle underfon … cristes licome in his sunfulle buke.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, B vij b. Whan yowre hawke hath wormys in hir bowke.
2. The trunk of the body; hence the body of a man or animal. After 14th c. only Sc. and dial.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 134. Þe hwule þet mi soule is in mine buke.
a. 1225. Juliana, 70. Er þe bodi wið þe buc beo isundret from hire heauet.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 174. A bouke of a motoun.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 7189. That the heued fleighe fram the bouk.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. ix. 100. Ane hundreth busteous bowkis of swyne.
1591. R. Bruce, 11 Serm., X ij b. They cary their heartes out of their buikes as it were.
1794. Burns, Batt. Sheriff-muir, ii. They rush’d and push’d … And monie a bouk did fa’, man.
1832–53. Whistle-Binkie (Sc. Songs), Ser. I. 85. Mony a bonny buik lay cauld.
† b. transf. Applied to the body or interior of a church. Obs. (Cf. BULK.)
c. 1420. Chron. Vilod., 340. A lowe in to þe bouke of þe chirche was send.
1499. Will of Bannfeld (Somerset Ho.). To be buried in the bouke of the Church.
3. = BULK in its modern senses: Magnitude in three dimensions, volume; largeness of volume, bulkiness; the greater portion of anything. Only mod. Sc. and dial.
1697. Cleland, Poems, 78 (Jam.). Though old Golboun should bear the buick o’t.
1805. J. Nicol, Poems, II. 3 (Jam.). The blades, accordin to their bouk He partit into bands.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 148. I’ll weigh ’t against its ain bouk, lead only excepted, o’ ony ither material noo extant.
1855. Whitby Gloss., Bouk (pron. Book), bulk, size, substance.
