English
buskin
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈbʌskɪn/
Noun

buskin (plural buskins)

  1. (historical) A half-boot.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.6:
      She, having hong upon a bough on high / Her bow and painted quiver, had unlaste / Her silver buskins from her nimble thigh […]
    • 1624, John Smith (explorer), Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 143:
      With this knife also, he will joynt a Deere, or any beast, shape his shooes, buskins, mantels, etc.
    • 1997, John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium, Penguin 1998, p. 248:
      Alexius was acclaimed with the imperial titles and formally shod with the purple buskins, embroidered in gold with the double-headed eagles of Byzantium [...].
  2. (historical) A type of half-boot with a high heel, worn by the ancient Athenian tragic actors.
  3. (by extension) Tragic drama; tragedy.
    • 1857, Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, Volume the Second, page 148 ISBN 1857150570
      Such an undertaking by no means benefits the low-heeled buskin of modern fiction.
  4. An instrument of torture for the foot; bootikin.


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