1) A term for a soft leather boot which reached the calf or knee, but used also of a shorter laced boot or even leather hose.
1502 unum par ocrarium vocat’ buskens, Ledsham
1535 two paire of hoise, a paire of new buskines, a ledder coite, Bradford
1568 twoe payre of olde velvet buskyns, Healaugh Park. It was occasionally applied to upper body clothing: 1572 To William Smithe of Shellay a busseskynne jerkyn, Dalton
1596 ‘Every cordiner or jerkin maker who shall shapp, cutt or make any jerkins, boots, shoes buskinges … not being a brother, shall pay yearly 3s 4d’, Beverley. It may have been considered by some to be a spelling of ‘buckskin’: in 1575, for example, William Stubb of Birstwith bequeathed a buckskinne doublet to his son.