bucket

Pronunciation: /ˈbʌkɪt/

Definition of bucket

1a roughly cylindrical open container with a handle, made of metal or plastic and used to hold and carry liquids: a bucket and spade an ice bucket
the contents of a bucket or the amount it can contain:she emptied a bucket of water over them
(buckets) informal large quantities of something, especially liquid:I wept buckets
a compartment on the outer edge of a waterwheel: the Laxey wheel had 168 buckets, each holding 24 gallons
the scoop of a dredger or grain elevator: as the chain turns the buckets bite into the canal bed and scoop out the mud
a scoop attached to the front of a loader, digger, or tractor.

2 Computing a unit of data that can be transferred from a backing store in a single operation.

[no object]

1 (it buckets down, it is bucketing down, etc.) British informal rain heavily: it was still bucketing down

2 [with adverbial of direction] informal (of a vehicle) move quickly and jerkily:the car came bucketing out of a side road

Derivatives

Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French buquet 'tub, pail', perhaps from Old English būc 'belly, pitcher'

Definition of bucket in the US English dictionary