bucketful

Variant of bucket

noun

  1. a deep, round container with a flat bottom and a curved handle, used to hold or carry water, coal, etc.; pail
  2. the amount held by a bucket
  3. a thing like a bucket, as a scoop on a steam shovel, any of the cups on a water wheel, or any of the curved vanes in the rotor of a turbine
  4. Slang the rump; buttocks

Origin: ME boket < Anglo-Fr buket, dim. of OE buc, pitcher, bulging vessel, orig., belly < IE *bhou-, var. of base *bheu-: see big

transitive verb, intransitive verb

  1. to carry, draw, or lift (water, etc.) in a bucket or buckets
  2. to speculate (with) dishonestly as in a bucket shop
  3. Brit.
    1. to ride (a horse) at a fast pace
    2. to move or drive rapidly or recklessly
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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