bucket

plural buckets

1. A container made of rigid material, often with a handle, used to carry liquids or small items.

   I need a bucket to carry the water from the well.

   1 more example

   The crab was cool and very light. But the water was thick with sand, and so, scrambling down, Jacob was about to jump, holding his bucket in front of him, when he saw, stretched entirely rigid, side by side, their faces very red, an enormous man and woman.

   1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob's Room

   Synonyms: pail

2. The amount held in this container.

   The horse drank a whole bucket of water.

3. in pluralinformalA large amount of liquid.

   It rained buckets yesterday.

   1 more example

   I was so nervous that I sweated buckets.

4. in pluralinformalA great deal of anything.

   We had buckets of fun.

   1 more example

   My new suit cost me buckets.

5. UKarchaicA unit of measure equal to four gallons.
6. The part of a piece of machinery that resembles a bucket (container).

   Synonyms: scoop, vane, blade

7. derogatoryslangSomeone who habitually uses crack cocaine.
8. slangAn old vehicle that is not in good working order.

   Synonyms: banger, beater, hooptie, jalopy, wreck, crock, shitbox, rustbucket

9. informalball gamesThe basket.

   The forward drove to the bucket.

10. informalball gamesA field goal.

    We can't keep giving up easy buckets.

    1 more example

    [Markieff] Morris isn’t quite the post-up threat that [Enes] Kanter is, and he can play both the 4 spot and 5 spot instead of just center, like Kanter. He is capable of playing a similar way, backing defenders down in the post. He prefers getting his buckets there with a bevy of fade-aways and jumpers. He’s a heat checker. And he can get hot on the block.

    2019 February 25, Brett Dawson, Fred Katz, “How power forward Markieff Morris might fit in with the Thunder”, in The Athletic

11. variation managementA mechanism for avoiding the allocation of targets in cases of mismanagement.
12. computingA storage space in a hash table for every item sharing a particular key.
13. uncommonaeronauticsA turbine blade driven by hot gas or steam.
14. A bucket bag.

    Avoid bulky styles such as duffle sacks, buckets, doctors' satchels, and hobos.

    1989, Susan Ludwig, Janice Steinberg, Petite Style, page 46

15. The leather socket for holding the whip when driving, or for the carbine or lance when mounted.
16. The pitcher in certain orchids.
17. humorousslangA helmet.

present singular third person buckets · participle present bucketing · participle past bucketed · past bucketed

1. transitiveTo place inside a bucket.
2. transitiveTo draw or lift in, or as if in, buckets.

   to bucket water

3. informalintransitiveTo rain heavily.

   It’s really bucketing down out there.

   Synonyms: bucket down, chuck it down, piss down, rain cats and dogs

4. informalintransitiveTo travel very quickly.

   The boat is bucketing along.

   Synonyms: hurtle, rocket, shoot, speed, whizz, book it

5. transitiveTo ride (a horse) hard or mercilessly.
6. AustraliaslangtransitiveTo criticize vehemently; to denigrate.
7. transitivecomputingTo categorize (data) by splitting it into buckets, or groups of related items.

   These candidates are then bucketed into a discretized version of the space of all possible lines.

   2002, Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi, Masayuki Numao, Rüdiger Reischuk, Algorithmic Learning Theory: 13th International Conference, page 352

   1 more example

   Thus, sorting each bucket takes O(1) times. The total effort of bucketing, sorting buckets, and concotenating^([sic]) the sorted buckets together is O(n).

   2008, Hari Mohan Pandey, Design Analysis and Algorithm, page 136

8. UStransitivebusinessTo engage in an illegal practice where a broker confirms a client's trade order without actually executing it on the free market.

   In United States v. Ficken (N.D. Ohio) the defendant was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to charges of converting clients' funds by "bucketing" their orders.

   1963, United States. Securities and Exchange Commission, Annual Report of the Securities and Exchange Commission, page 138

9. UKUStransitivehobbiesTo make, or cause to make (the recovery), with a certain hurried or unskillful forward swing of the body.

1. Nickname for Pawtucket: a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States.

   ‘You really think the Bucket's a shithole, Mousy?’ ’[They should] put a toilet seat on top of this place.’

   1999, M. Corrente, P. & R. Farrelly, Outside Providence

   2 more examples

   People used to call Pawtucket ‘the Bucket’. And it was a derogatory term. But you know what there are some artists who've taken that term ‘the Bucket’ and reinvigorated it and they actually sell shirts, ‘the Bucket’ shirts. They're proud of being from the Bucket

   2008, Jason Caminiti, Pawtucket Rising, spoken by James Doyle (mayor)

   Rhode Island had a way of trapping its inhabitants like roaches that check in but can never escape. Pawtucket, The Bucket was especially gluey that way.

   2012 October 23, Rey Otis, Dead Batteries, Black Bed Sheet Books, →ISBN, page 34