bucket

noun

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.

anything resembling or suggesting this.

Machinery.

any of the scoops attached to or forming the endless chain in certain types of conveyors or elevators.

the scoop or clamshell of a steam shovel, power shovel, or dredge.

a vane or blade of a waterwheel, paddle wheel, water turbine, or the like.

(in a dam) a concave surface at the foot of a spillway for deflecting the downward flow of water.

a bucketful: a bucket of sand.

Basketball.

Informal. field goal.

the part of the keyhole extending from the foul line to the end line.

bucket seat.

Bowling. a leave of the two, four, five, and eight pins, or the three, five, six, and nine pins. See illus. under bowling.

Relevant Questions

How To Play Bozo Buckets

verb (used with object)

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.

00:10

Bucket is one of our favorite verbs.

So is absquatulate. Does it mean:

to flee; abscond:

to bark; yelp.

LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

verb (used without object)

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.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To bucket

Collins

World English Dictionary

bucket (ˈbʌkɪt)

—n
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.	chiefly (US) a turbine rotor blade
7.	(Austral), (NZ) an ice cream container
8.	slang kick the bucket to die

—vb (often foll by down) (often foll by along) , -kets, -keting, -keted
9.	(tr) to carry in or put into a bucket
10.	(of rain) to fall very heavily: it bucketed all day
11.	chiefly (Brit) to travel or drive fast
12.	chiefly (Brit) (tr) to ride (a horse) hard without consideration
13.	slang (Austral) (tr) to criticize severely

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

bucket

mid-13c., from Anglo-Norm. buquet "bucket, pail," influenced by or dim. of O.E. buc "pitcher, bulging vessel," originally "belly" (buckets were formerly of leather as well as wood), from P.Gmc. *bukaz, from PIE root *bhou-, variant of base *bheu- "to grow, swell." Kick the bucket (1785) perhaps is from

unrelated O.Fr. buquet "balance," a beam from which slaughtered animals were hung; perhaps reinforced by the notion of suicide by hanging.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

bucket definition

n.
the goal (hoop and net) in basketball. (Sports.) : Freddy arced one at the bucket and missed.
n.
a hoop or basket in basketball. (Sports.) : Four buckets in two minutes. Is that a record, or what?
n.
the buttocks. (See also can.) : Sam's getting a real fat bucket, isn't he?
n.
an old car. (From bucket of bolts.) : How much did you pay for that old bucket?

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Easton

Bible Dictionary