Meanings
plural pails
- A vessel of wood, tin, plastic, etc., usually cylindrical and having a handle -- used especially for carrying liquids, for example water or milk; a bucket (sometimes with a cover).
The milkmaid carried a pail of milk in each hand.
1 more example
Jack and Jill Went up the hill. To fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down, And broke his crown, And Jill came tumbling after.
1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. KendrewSynonyms: bucket
- A closed (covered) cylindrical shipping container.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA vessel of wood, tin, plastic, etc., usually cylindrical and having a handle -- used especially for carrying liquids, for example water or milk; a bucket (sometimes with a cover).
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinpatella“small pan, shallow dish, platter”
- Old Frenchpaielle“frying pan, warming pan; a liquid measure”
- Proto-Indo-European*bak-“peg, club”
- Proto-West Germanic*pagil
- Old Englishpæġel“wine vessel, container for liquids, pail; a liquid measure”
- Middle Englishpayle“bucket, pail, milking pail”
- Englishpail
From Middle English payle (“bucket, pail, milking pail”), of uncertain origin. Likely from Old English pæġel (“wine vessel, container for liquids, pail; a liquid measure”), from Proto-West Germanic *pagil, from Proto-Indo-European *bak- (“peg, club”), equivalent to peg + -le. Compare West Frisian pegel (“liquid measure, fourth of a litre, half-pint”), German Pegel (“level of liquid, level”), Middle Dutch pegel (“half-pint”), Danish pægl (“half-pint”). Doublet of peil. Alternatively from Old French paielle (“frying pan, warming pan; a liquid measure”), from Latin patella (“small pan, shallow dish, platter”), diminutive of patina (“broad shallow pan, stewpan”). Perhaps a conflation of both.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic
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Cite this entry
pail. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pail
“pail.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pail. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pail,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pail.
Source: pail on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.