Definition of "buckram"

buckram¹

/ˈbʌkɹəm/

noun
usually uncountable, plural buckrams
1. A coarse cloth of cotton, linen or hemp, stiffened with size or glue, used in bookbinding to cover and protect the books, in garments to keep them in the form intended, and for wrappers to cover merchandise.
  Quotations
  Four rogues in buckram let drive at me—
  c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iv]
  Buckram was probably from the first a stiffened material employed for lining, often dyed.
  1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 557
2. A crab that has just molted; a papershell.
verb
third-person singular simple present buckrams, present participle buckraming, simple past and past participle buckramed or buckrammed
1. (transitive) To stiffen with or as if with buckram.

/ˈbʌkɹəm/