bucket

[buhk-it] /ˈbʌk ɪt/
noun
1.
a deep, cylindrical vessel, usually of metal, plastic, or wood, with a flat bottom and a semicircular bail, for collecting, carrying, or holding water, sand, fruit, etc.; pail.
2.
anything resembling or suggesting this.
3.
Machinery.
  1. any of the scoops attached to or forming the endless chain in certain types of conveyors or elevators.
  2. the scoop or clamshell of a steam shovel, power shovel, or dredge.
  3. a vane or blade of a waterwheel, paddle wheel, water turbine, or the like.
4.
(in a dam) a concave surface at the foot of a spillway for deflecting the downward flow of water.
5.
a bucketful:
a bucket of sand.
6.
Basketball.
  1. Informal. field goal.
  2. the part of the keyhole extending from the foul line to the end line.
7.
bucket seat.
8.
Bowling. a leave of the two, four, five, and eight pins, or the three, five, six, and nine pins.
verb (used with object), bucketed, bucketing.
9.
to lift, carry, or handle in a bucket (often followed by up or out).
10.
Chiefly British. to ride (a horse) fast and without concern for tiring it.
11.
to handle (orders, transactions, etc.) in or as if in a bucket shop.
verb (used without object), bucketed, bucketing.
12.
Informal. to move or drive fast; hurry.
Idioms
13.
drop in the bucket, a small, usually inadequate amount in relation to what is needed or requested:
The grant for research was just a drop in the bucket.
14.
drop the bucket on, Australian Slang. to implicate, incriminate, or expose.
15.
kick the bucket, Slang. to die:
His children were greedily waiting for him to kick the bucket.
Origin
1250-1300; Middle English buket < Anglo-French < Old English bucc (variant of būc vessel, belly; cognate with German Bauch) + Old French -et -et
Regional variation note
Though both bucket and pail are used throughout the entire U.S., pail has its greatest use in the Northern U.S., and bucket is more commonly used elsewhere, especially in the Midland and Southern U.S.
Examples from the web for bucket
  • The heavier air causes a container of water to flow into a bucket.
  • One good word quenches more heat than a bucket of water.
  • He does not sell beer by the bucket or can or growler or schooner, but by the pint.
  • bucket, fastened with iron, and near it a trough for the horses.
  • Ladle curds out of the pot into a large colander, lined with a double thickness of cheesecloth and set over a clean bucket.
  • Soak three blocks of florist's foam in a bucket of water, then set them on plastic trays inside the window box.
  • Hot soapy water in a bucket for cleaning slippery hands while bottling.
  • If you are sick, then stay in your dorm and throw up in a bucket.
  • Simply blend a teaspoon of originality into a bucket of the same old thing.
  • It comes out as vapor, but some condenses and drips out of a pipe into a bucket.
British Dictionary definitions for bucket

bucket

/ˈbʌkɪt/
noun
1.
an open-topped roughly cylindrical container; pail
2.
Also called bucketful. the amount a bucket will hold
3.
any of various bucket-like parts of a machine, such as the scoop on a mechanical shovel
4.
a cupped blade or bucket-like compartment on the outer circumference of a water wheel, paddle wheel, etc
5.
(computing) a unit of storage on a direct-access device from which data can be retrieved
6.
(mainly US) a turbine rotor blade
7.
(Austral & NZ) an ice cream container
8.
(slang) kick the bucket, to die
verb -kets, -keting, -keted
9.
(transitive) to carry in or put into a bucket
10.
(intransitive) often foll by down. (of rain) to fall very heavily: it bucketed all day
11.
(mainly Brit) (intransitive) often foll by along. to travel or drive fast
12.
(transitive) (mainly Brit) to ride (a horse) hard without consideration
13.
(transitive) (Austral, slang) to criticize severely
Word Origin
C13: from Anglo-French buket, from Old English būc; compare Old High German būh belly, German Bauch belly
Word Origin and History for bucket
n.

mid-13c., from Anglo-French buquet "bucket, pail," from Old French buquet "bucket," which is from a Germanic source, or a diminutive of cognate Old English buc "pitcher, bulging vessel," originally "belly" (buckets were formerly of leather as well as wood), both from West Germanic *buh- (cf. Dutch buik, Old High German buh, German Bauch "belly"), from PIE *bhou-, variant of root *bheu- "to grow, swell" (see be).

Kick the bucket "to die" (1785) perhaps is from unrelated Old French buquet "balance," a beam from which slaughtered animals were hung; perhaps reinforced by the notion of suicide by hanging after standing on an upturned bucket (but Farmer calls attention to bucket "a Norfolk term for a pulley").

Slang definitions & phrases for bucket

bucket

noun
  1. A car, esp a big, old car (1930s+)
  2. A ship, esp an old and slow ship; rust bucket (1840s+ Merchant marine & Navy)
  3. A destroyer; can, tin can (Navy by WWII)
  4. The buttocks; rump: Knocked him on his bucket (1930s+)
  5. The basketball net (1920s+ Basketball)
  6. A basketball goal: He'll make ten buckets a game (1920s+ Basketball)
  7. The rearmost part of the batter's box •The source expression was ''have his foot in the water-bucket'': had his foot way back in the bucket/ Emily steps into the bucket when going for a pitch (1913+ Baseball)
  8. Jail: These days, the Gray Bar Motel is a synonym for ''the bucket,'' which means jail (1990s+ Los Angeles police)
verb

To speed; barrel: The kids were bucketing along (1860s+)

Related Terms

brain bucket, someone can't carry a tune in a bucket, drop one's buckets, for crying out loud, go to hell in a handbasket, gutbucket, kick the bucket, lard-bucket, rust bucket, sleaze-bucket, slimebag


bucket in the Bible

a vessel to draw water with (Isa. 40:15); used figuratively, probably, of a numerous issue (Num. 24:7).

Idioms and Phrases with bucket

bucket

see: