Bucket Definition

bŭkĭt

buckets

noun

buckets

A deep, round container with a flat bottom and a curved handle, used to hold or carry water, coal, etc.; pail.

Webster's New World

The amount held by a bucket.

Webster's New World

A unit of dry measure in the US Customary System equal to 2 pecks (17.6 liters).

American Heritage

A thing like a bucket, as a scoop on a power shovel, any of the cups on a water wheel, or any of the curved vanes in the rotor of a turbine.

Webster's New World

The rump; buttocks.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

verb

buckets

To carry, draw, or lift (water, etc.) in a bucket or buckets.

Webster's New World

To speculate (with) dishonestly as in a bucket shop.

Webster's New World

To ride (a horse) at a fast pace.

Webster's New World

To move or drive rapidly or recklessly.

Webster's New World

To make haste; hustle.

American Heritage

Synonyms:

idiom

a drop in the bucket

American Heritage

kick the bucket

Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Bucket

Singular:

bucket

Plural:

buckets

From Middle English boket, buket, partly from Anglo-Norman buket, buquet ‘tub, pail’ (compare Jersey boutchet, Guernsey bouquet), diminutive of buc ‘abdomen; object with a cavity’, from Vulgar Latin *būco (compare Occitan/Catalan buc, Italian buco, buca (“hole, gap”)), from Old Frankish *būk (“belly, stomach”), and partly from Old English bucc (“bucket, pitcher”) (mod. dialectal buck), both from Proto-Germanic *būkaz (“belly, stomach”), equivalent to bouk +‎ -et. More at bouk.

From Wiktionary
Middle English from Old French buket of Germanic origin

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition