Anglo-Irish. [f. BUCK sb.1 2 + -EEN, dim. suffix; cf. squireen.] A young man belonging to the ‘second-rate gentry’ of Ireland, or a younger son of the poorer aristocracy, having no profession, and aping the habits of the wealthier classes.
1793. S. Crumpe, Essay, Empl. People, 181. Those nuisances to every rank of society, denominated bucks and buckeens.
1812. Mar. Edgeworth, Absentee, vii. Squireens … a race of men who have succeeded to the Buckeens.
1851. Thackeray, Eng. Hum., vi. (1858), 320. After College, he … lived for some years the life of a buckeen.
