Meanings
- humorousslanguncountablecomputingSynonym of bit bucket (“notional resting place of lost or missing digital information”).
So a file named a.doc or files 1.doc through 9.doc would be sent to the great bit bucket in the sky; however, a file named 10.doc, because it has two characters in the file name, would not be affected by the previous command, which may not have been your intention.
2016, Gilbert Held, Windows Networking Tools, page 1581 more example
You cannot interrupt it by pressing Esc or Ctrl-Break, and if you use brute force to stop it by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del or by turning off the machine, your data will disappear into the great bit-bucket in the sky. Most other disk packers guard against accidental data loss by keeping a spare copy of a cluster ondisk while transferring another copy from one part of the disk to another.
1988, PC Mag, volume 7, number 17, page 80Synonyms: bit bucket
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of bit bucket (“notional resting place of lost or missing digital information”).
Cite this entry
great bit bucket in the sky. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/great%20bit%20bucket%20in%20the%20sky
“great bit bucket in the sky.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/great%20bit%20bucket%20in%20the%20sky. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “great bit bucket in the sky,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/great%20bit%20bucket%20in%20the%20sky.
Source: great bit bucket in the sky on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.