pail Definition
pail (pāl)
noun
- a more or less cylindrical container, usually with a hoop-shaped handle, for holding and carrying liquids, etc.; bucket
- the amount held by a pail
Etymology: ME paile < OE pægel, small measure, wine vessel < LL pagella (dim. of L pagina, page), a small page, in VL, a measure of area, later a measure of volume: infl. by OFr paele, a pan < L patella: see patella
pail Synonyms
pail Usage Examples
Preposition: of
- milk: The full and heavy pails of milk were more easily transported with the extra support from the yoke.
- water: Use full strength in spray bottle or add two cups to a pail of warm water.
Preposition: into
insignificance: I'm delighted to be involved with them - my role pails into insignificance compared to what they do at sea.
Converse of object
- fetch: Then, if you asked Jack to fetch a pail of water, he could figure out how to do it.
- carry: Men who could be hired to carry pails of water up to the tenement flats were called caddies.
- take: Uttering a few sounds with an air of melancholy, he took the pail from her head and bore it to the cottage himself.
- have: I had only one pail of water for taking a bath.
- fill: Twice a week we'd go up to the nearest farm to fill the milk pail or buy another sack of potatoes.
- milk: The point of the cartoon is the lawyer under the cow with his milking pail!
Adjective modifier
- empty: Dirty water or empty pails were commonly punished by pinching or lameness.
- old: Last spring a friend of ours discovered one inside an old pail, which was lying upside down in a corner of his garden.
- full: I usually had to make two trips, as I couldn't manage to carry a full pail.
- wooden: Beside these were long rows of wooden pails and dairy utensils, with shining ranks of tinware and pewter platters and pots.
- small: There was a bucket full of water, and a small pail.
Noun used with modifier
- garbage: I have some garbage pail kids cards still somewhere, I'm sure.
- dinner: To go west means to hop the twig, pop one's clog, hand in one's dinner pail, and so on.
- milk: Twice a week we'd go up to the nearest farm to fill the milk pail or buy another sack of potatoes.
- slop: I even managed to empty the slop pail in the food tunnel.
- lunch: You would not ask for a kiss good-bye, or an extra napkin in your lunch pail.
- water: The right-hand carving appears to show someone carrying what look like water pails.
Browse dictionary entries near pail
- ‹ Paige, Satchel (Leroy Robert)
- ‹ Paige, Satchel
- ‹ paid off
- ‹ paid-in capital
- ‹ paid for
- ‹ paid
- ‹ pahoehoe
- ‹ pahlavi
- ‹ Pahang
- ‹ pah
- paillard ›
- paillasse ›
- paillette ›
- pain ›
- pain and suffering ›
- Paine ›
- Paine,Thomas ›
- pained ›
- painful ›
- painfully ›

