dry pail

noun

A small basket or bucket or hanging wet bag, usually with holes to allow for airflow and sometimes without a lid, used to store soiled cloth diapers or, very rarely, disposable diapers; a diaper pail without water or cleaning solution.

Meanings

noundry pail (plural dry pails)

plural dry pails

  1. A small basket or bucket or hanging wet bag, usually with holes to allow for airflow and sometimes without a lid, used to store soiled cloth diapers or, very rarely, disposable diapers; a diaper pail without water or cleaning solution.

    Other people have recommended a wastebasket with a tight-fitting lid. We didn't think at the time that that would provide enough odor containment; now I think that it would, for a dry pail system.

    2011, Peggy Wilson, The Naturally Frugal Baby, 2 edition, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 93
    2 more examples

    A dry diaper pail can be either a hard pail with a liner or a hanging pail (just the wet bag or liner). A dry pail isn’t exactly dry, since you fill it with wet diapers, but "dry" refers to not adding more water.

    2013 April 13, Attached Mama, “Cloth Diaper Washing: Wet Pail or Dry Pail?”, in Eco Baby Steps

    Wet pails have largely fallen out of favour. Many families successfully store dirty diapers in a wet bag or dry pail and wash on wash day. Modern washing machines, detergent, and changes in diapers has made this an unnecessary step for some families.

    2021, Bailey Bouwman, Cloth Diapers: The Ultimate Guide to Textiles, Washing & More, Simply Bailey Social Marketing, →ISBN, page 195
verbdry pail (third-person singular simple present dry pails, present participle dry pailing, simple past and past participle dry pailed)

present singular third person dry pails · participle present dry pailing · participle past dry pailed · past dry pailed

  1. rareslangTo use a dry pail.

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

dry pail. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dry%20pail

MLA

“dry pail.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dry%20pail. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dry pail,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dry%20pail.

Source: dry pail on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.