bucket

[ buhk-it ]

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)

, buck·et·ed, buck·et·ing.

1. to lift, carry, or handle in a bucket (often followed by up or out ).
2. Chiefly British. to ride (a horse) fast and without concern for tiring it.
3. to handle (orders, transactions, etc.) in or as if in a bucket shop.

verb (used without object)

, buck·et·ed, buck·et·ing.

1. Informal. to move or drive fast; hurry.

bucket

/ ˈbʌkɪt /

noun

1. an open-topped roughly cylindrical container; pail
2. Also calledbucketful 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. a turbine rotor blade
7. an ice cream container
8. kick the bucket slang.
   to die

verb

1. tr to carry in or put into a bucket
2. introften foll bydown (of rain) to fall very heavily

   it bucketed all day

3. introften foll byalong to travel or drive fast
4. tr to ride (a horse) hard without consideration
5. slang.
   tr to criticize severely

Word History and Origins

Origin of bucket¹

1250–1300; Middle English buket < Anglo-French < Old English bucc (variant of būc vessel, belly; cognate with German Bauch ) + Old French -et -et

Word History and Origins

Origin of bucket¹

C13: from Anglo-French buket , from Old English būc ; compare Old High German būh belly, German Bauch belly

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. 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.

2. drop the bucket on, Australian Slang. to implicate, incriminate, or expose.
3. kick the bucket, Slang. to die:

   His children were greedily waiting for him to kick the bucket.

More idioms and phrases containing bucket

see drop in the bucket ; kick the bucket ; rain cats and dogs (buckets) ; weep buckets .

Example Sentences

Flowers are ubiquitous in Southern California and so easy to procure, from the buckets of seasonal blooms at your local supermarket to the gaudy $5 bouquets hawked at many freeway off-ramps.

From Los Angeles Times

“All I could think about was that bottle of champagne in the ice bucket,” she writes.

From Los Angeles Times

The game in Phoenix gave Lakers fans a taste of what Knecht could do, a shooter and scorer who, at any time, could burn up the nets with a flurry of buckets.

From Los Angeles Times

But here was Santa Clara climbing back, cutting their lead to just a few buckets, as if to remind it wouldn’t always be this easy.

From Los Angeles Times

After the trophy presentation, Orange Lutheran players failed in the first attempt to douse coach Kristen Sherman with ice water but Cook found another bucket and Sherman willingly “took one for the team.”

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• can
• canister
• cask
• kettle
• pail
• pot