Definition of "buckler" [buc•kler]

• A small, round shield either carried or worn on the arm. (noun)
• A means of protection; a defense: "has enjoyed a reputation as a shield and buckler for . . . the academic avant-garde” ( Donal Henahan). (noun)
• To shield; protect. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "His buckler was a potlid, his lance a hop-pole shod with iron, and a basket-hilt broadsword, like that of Hudibras, depended by a broad buff belt, that girded his middle."
• "Posidonius writes, that Fabius was called the buckler,"
• "What tends strongly to confirm this view, that the buckler was the model for the coin, is the fact that for a long time Macedonian coins were finished upon the obverse, in imitation of the national shield."