Verb "buck"

[Bassim]

I have never before used the word "buck", and now I have written a few sentences using it as an exercise. Would you please correct my mistakes?

1. John went on holiday to Span to buck himself up after his divorce.
2. Before a date, I drank a glass of beer to buck myself up.
3. The jockey tried to pat the horse, but it bucked and neighed.
4. When Gina came out of hospital her family threw a party to buck her up.

 

[Barb_D]

I have to be honest: I rarely hear "buck someone up." It's usually used as an imperative: C'mon, buck up! It's not that bad.
You usually say it (in my experience) when someone seems upset about something that should be easy to rebound from - like throwing a gutter ball or striking out in baseball. I wouldn't tell someone who just got out of the hospital to "buck up" for example.

3 is okay. That's physical.

 

[Tarheel]

They all look good to me.

Now where's my beer?

 

[teechar]

1. John went on holiday to Spain to buck himself up after his divorce.

Nos. 1, 2 and 4 demonstrate the same meaning.

You're also likely to hear "buck the trend" on the news.

 

[Tarheel]

Barb makes a good point. You might use "cheer up" instead of "buck up" in your examples.