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.
British Dictionary definitions for kick the 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 kick the bucket

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").

kick the bucket in Culture

kick the bucket definition


To die: “Scarcely anyone was sorry when the old tyrant finally kicked the bucket.”

Slang definitions & phrases for kick the bucket

kick the bucket

verb phrase

To die: Old man Mose done kicked the bucket

[1785+; origin uncertain; perhaps fr the bucket a suicide might kick from beneath him in hanging himself]


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


kick the 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 kick the bucket

kick the bucket

Die, as in All of my goldfish kicked the bucket while we were on vacation. This moderately impolite usage has a disputed origin. Some say it refers to committing suicide by hanging, in which one stands on a bucket, fastens a rope around one's neck, and kicks the bucket away. A more likely origin is the use of bucket in the sense of “a beam from which something may be suspended” because pigs were suspended by their heels from such beams after being slaughtered, the term kick the bucket came to mean “to die.” [ ; late 1700s ]

bucket

see: