bucket

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bucket/ˈbʌkɪt/

▶noun

• 1 a cylindrical open container with a handle, used to carry liquids.

  ■ a compartment on the outer edge of a waterwheel.

  ■ the scoop of a dredger or grain elevator, or one attached to the front of a digger or tractor.

• 2 (buckets) informal large quantities of liquid.

▶verb (buckets, bucketing, bucketed) informal

• 1 (bucket down) Brit. rain heavily.

• 2 (of a vehicle) move quickly and jerkily.

– derivatives
bucketful noun (pl. bucketfuls).

– origin ME: from Anglo-Norman Fr. buquet ‘tub, pail’, perh. from OE būc ‘belly, pitcher’.