BUCKRAM, in modern days, a coarse fabric of linen or cotton stiffened with size or glue, and used for the stiffening of parts of clothes and in bookbinding. Falstaff's "men in buckram" (Shakespeare, Henry IV., pt. I., ii. 4) has become proverbial, and the word is often used as implying a false show of strength due to artificial stiffening. The derivation is from O.Fr. boucaran, a coarse cloth.