bucket
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.
Bowling. a leave of the two, four, five, and eight pins, or the three, five, six, and nine pins.
to lift, carry, or handle in a bucket (often followed by up or out).
Chiefly British. to ride (a horse) fast and without concern for tiring it.
to handle (orders, transactions, etc.) in or as if in a bucket shop.
Informal. to move or drive fast; hurry.
Idioms about bucket
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.
drop the bucket on, Australian Slang. to implicate, incriminate, or expose.
kick the bucket, Slang. to die: His children were greedily waiting for him to kick the bucket.
Origin of bucket
1regional variation note For bucket
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use bucket in a sentence
Sneaker and clothing brands routinely dole out buckets of dough to drape their swag over popular cultural characters.
Would You Pay $100 For a 50 Cent Bulge? Men’s Undies Get Expensive | James Joiner | December 23, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSo what of the photograph of what the Senate report described as a “well-used waterboard” with buckets around it, at the Salt Pit?
CIA Interrogation Chief: ‘Rectal Feeding,’ Broken Limbs Are News to Me | Kimberly Dozier | December 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTOne day, as I sat in our driveway in Long Island playing with blocks and buckets, my curiosity got the best of me.
Welcome to Generation Overshare: Lena Dunham, Taylor Swift, and the Politics of Self-Disclosure | Marlow Stern | November 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTI disturb their efforts to get their children and the few clothes they have with them clean using hoses and battered buckets.
Turkish President Kisses Off Kurds Under Siege By ISIS | Jamie Dettmer | October 7, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTI had to do two buckets because two people challenged me, so I thought it should have some music to it.
David Lynch on Transcendental Meditation, ‘Twin Peaks,’ and Collaborating With Kanye West | Marlow Stern | October 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEAST
A strange breed of sailors from the lower deck came up, with mops and buckets.
The Double Four | E. Phillips OppenheimHe agreed, and, launching our boat and throwing in two buckets of eggs, we pulled out.
Tying themselves and their buckets to the thwarts, they went to work and soon relieved her of a heavy load.
The buckets, Fig. 3, are formed of some easily melted, but not too soft metal alloy which can be cast in plaster molds.
The Boy Mechanic, Book 2 | VariousThe cups, or buckets, are shaped in a die which can be cast or built up of two pieces, as desired.
The Boy Mechanic, Book 2 | Various
British Dictionary definitions for bucket
/ (ˈbʌkɪt) /
an open-topped roughly cylindrical container; pail
Also called: bucketful the amount a bucket will hold
any of various bucket-like parts of a machine, such as the scoop on a mechanical shovel
a cupped blade or bucket-like compartment on the outer circumference of a water wheel, paddle wheel, etc
computing a unit of storage on a direct-access device from which data can be retrieved
mainly US a turbine rotor blade
Australian and NZ an ice cream container
kick the bucket slang to die
(tr) to carry in or put into a bucket
(intr often foll by down) (of rain) to fall very heavily: it bucketed all day
(intr often foll by along) mainly British to travel or drive fast
(tr) mainly British to ride (a horse) hard without consideration
(tr) Australian slang to criticize severely
Origin of bucket
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with bucket
see drop in the bucket; kick the bucket; rain cats and dogs (buckets); weep buckets.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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