# bucket

Pronunciation: say "BUK-it" /ˈbʌkɪt/

## Noun

1. A container made of stiff material, often fitted with a handle, for carrying liquids or small items.
   - Simple: A hard container, often with a handle, used to carry liquids or small things.
   - _The farmer hung the empty bucket on a nail by the barn door._
   - _Painters on the scaffold hauled their buckets up on a rope._
2. The amount of liquid or other material that a bucket holds.
   - Simple: As much as a bucket can hold.
   - _It took twelve buckets of gravel to level the garden path._
   - _He worked his way through a whole bucket of popcorn before the trailers ended._
3. A very large amount of liquid, such as rain or sweat. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A lot of liquid, like heavy rain or sweat.
   - _The forecast says it'll rain buckets all weekend._
   - _By mile twenty, the runners were sweating buckets in the heat._
5. A large amount of anything, whether money, fun, or something else. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A lot of something, like money or fun.
   - _The renovation ended up costing buckets, far more than we had budgeted._
   - _She has buckets of talent but very little patience._
6. A part of a machine that is shaped like a bucket, such as a scoop or vane.
   - Simple: A part of a machine that is shaped like a bucket, like a scoop.
   - _The operator lowered the excavator's bucket and dragged it through the clay._
   - _A chain of steel buckets carried grain up the elevator to the top of the silo._
7. In basketball, a field goal; a basket scored in open play, not from the free-throw line. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: In basketball, a shot that goes through the hoop during play.
   - _The rookie got his first pro bucket on a fast-break layup._
   - _Their defense keeps handing the other team easy buckets in transition._
8. In basketball, the basket: the hoop and net that players shoot at. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: In basketball, the hoop that players throw the ball through.
   - _The point guard kept attacking the bucket instead of settling for jump shots._
   - _Their center rarely strays more than a few feet from the bucket._
9. An old vehicle, especially a car, that is in poor working order. *(slang)*
   - Simple: An old car or other vehicle that does not run well.
   - _I can't believe that bucket passed inspection._
   - _He's still driving the same bucket he bought in college, dents and all._
11. A handbag shaped like a bucket; short for bucket bag.
   - Simple: A handbag shaped like a bucket.
   - _This season's buckets come in suede, canvas, and woven straw._
   - _She swapped her heavy tote for a small leather bucket with a long strap._
12. In a hash table, a storage slot holding all the items whose keys hash to the same location.
   - Simple: In a kind of computer data table, a place that holds all items with the same key.
   - _When many items share a key, their bucket grows long and lookups slow down._
   - _The table starts with sixteen buckets and doubles the number as it fills._
15. A helmet. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A helmet that you wear to keep your head safe.
   - _Nobody rides on my motorcycle without a bucket on their head._
   - _The new recruit's bucket was two sizes too big and kept slipping over his eyes._
17. A person who habitually uses crack cocaine. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A person who often uses the drug crack cocaine.
   - _'Half the people on that block are buckets now,' he said, shaking his head._
   - _'He went from honor student to bucket in about a year,' his old teacher said._
23. A leather socket that holds the whip when driving, or the carbine or lance when on horseback.
   - Simple: A leather holder for a whip when driving horses, or for a gun or spear when riding.
   - _The trooper slid his carbine into the bucket and swung up into the saddle._
   - _At the museum, the coachman's whip still stands in its leather bucket beside the driver's seat._
24. The pitcher-like part of the flower in certain orchids.
   - Simple: A cup-shaped part of the flower in some orchids.
   - _A bee lost its footing on the slippery rim and dropped into the orchid's bucket._
   - _In this orchid the lip curves into a bucket that slowly fills with fluid._

## Verb

4. To rain heavily. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To rain very hard.
   - _Forecasters warned that it would bucket down all afternoon._
   - _It had been bucketing down for hours, so the game was called off._
10. To organize data into groups according to what the items have in common.
   - Simple: To sort data into groups of items that belong together.
   - _The pipeline buckets incoming requests into one-minute windows before counting them._
   - _Analysts bucket customers by age so the chart stays readable._
13. To place something inside a bucket.
   - Simple: To put something in a bucket.
   - _The waiter bucketed the champagne and set it beside the table._
   - _Volunteers bucket the litter they collect and leave it by the gate._
14. To draw or lift something in buckets, or as if in buckets.
   - Simple: To lift water or other things in buckets, or in a similar way.
   - _The crew bucketed seawater over the side until the pump was fixed._
   - _Old dredgers bucket mud from the riverbed in a slow, clanking chain._
16. To travel at high speed. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To travel very fast.
   - _The ferry was bucketing along at full speed when the fog rolled in._
   - _Delivery vans bucket past the farm at all hours._
18. To criticize someone or something fiercely and belittle them. *(slang, Australia)*
   - Simple: To say very harsh things about someone or something.
   - _The coach bucketed his players in the post-match press conference._
   - _Talkback callers love to bucket the government over petrol prices._
20. To ride a horse hard or without mercy.
   - Simple: To ride a horse very hard, without any kindness to it.
   - _The rider bucketed his horse over the last mile and left it lame._
   - _The trainer warned the jockey not to bucket the colt in its first race._
21. In rowing, to make the recovery, or cause it to be made, with a hurried or clumsy forward swing of the body.
   - Simple: In rowing, to rush forward clumsily while getting ready for the next stroke.
   - _By the last five hundred meters, the stroke was bucketing the recovery and the boat began to check._
   - _The coach warned that a tired crew will bucket the recovery and lose its rhythm._

## Noun

19. A unit of capacity amounting to four gallons. *(archaic, UK)*
   - Simple: A unit for measuring how much something holds, equal to four gallons.
   - _The brewer's accounts measure the ale in buckets of four gallons each._
   - _The old recipe calls for half a bucket of water, two gallons in all._
22. One of the blades of a turbine, driven by hot gas or steam. *(rare)*
   - Simple: One of the blades in a turbine that hot gas or steam pushes around.
   - _Engineers replaced several first-stage buckets after an inspection found heat damage._
   - _Steam leaving the nozzles strikes each bucket and drives the rotor._

## Origin

From Middle English buket, boket, which comes partly from Old English bucc ("bucket, pitcher"; still dialectal buck) and partly from Anglo-Norman buket, buquet ("tub; pail"), a diminutive of Old French buc ("abdomen; object with a cavity"). The Old French word came through Vulgar Latin *būcus (compare Italian buco, buca, "hole, gap") from Frankish *būk ("belly, stomach"). Both the Old English and the Frankish words go back to Proto-Germanic *būkaz ("belly, stomach").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bucket (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).