water butt

plural water butts · alternative water-butt · alternative waterbutt

1. An open-ended barrel used to contain rainwater; a rain barrel

   Trumpkin went to a flat stone about the size of the top of a water-butt, and stamped on it with his foot.

   1951, C. S. Lewis, chapter 6, in Prince Caspian, Collins, published 1998

   2 more examples

   It would have been better, as it turned out, to have led gently up to this announcement, for Mrs. Micawber, being in a delicate state of health, was overcome by it, and was taken so unwell, that Mr. Micawber was obliged, in great trepidation, to run down to the water-butt in the backyard, and draw a basinful to lave her brow with.

   1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, chapter 27, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC

   The house was silent save for the wind outside, and the noisy trickling and splattering of water in the water-butts.

   1915, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 2, in The Rainbow, New York: The Modern Library, page 72