bucket

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A cylindrical vessel used for holding or carrying liquids or solids; a pail.
2. n. The amount that a bucket can hold: One bucket of paint will be enough for the ceiling.
3. n. A unit of dry measure in the U.S. Customary System equal to 2 pecks (17.6 liters). See Table at measurement.
4. n. A receptacle on various machines, such as the scoop of a power shovel or the compartments on a water wheel, used to gather and convey material.
5. n. Basketball A basket.
6. v. To hold, carry, or put in a bucket: bucket up water from a well.
7. v. To ride (a horse) long and hard.
8. v. To move or proceed rapidly and jerkily: bucketing over the unpaved lane.
9. v. To make haste; hustle.
10. idiom. a drop in the bucket An insufficient or inconsequential amount in comparison with what is required.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A vessel for drawing up water, as from a well; a pail or open vessel of wood, leather, metal, or other material, for carrying water or other liquid.
2. n. A vane, float, or box on a water-wheel against which the water impinges, or into which it falls, in turning the wheel.
3. n. The scoop of a dredging-machine, a grain-elevator, etc.
4. n. The float of a paddle-wheel.
5. n. The piston of a lifting-pump.
6. n. As much as a bucket holds; half a bushel.
7. To dip up water with a bucket; use a bucket.
8. [In allusion to the rapid motion of a bucket in a well.] To move fast.
9. To pour water upon with a bucket.
10. n. A letter full of abuse.
11. n. A scoop or digger used for taking up loose material such as coal or ore, and often for digging under water. Such buckets are operated by power and can lift a ton or more at a time. The most common form is the clam-shell bucket, which is made in two parts hinged together. It is lowered with the jaws open, and they are closed while the bucket rests on the material to be lifted. It is heavy enough to dig in as the jaws close and so pick up its load.
12. n. In turbines and centrifugal pumps, the space between two adjacent vanes on the revolving wheel.
13. n. A beam or pole on which anything may be hung or carried.

Wiktionary

1. n. A container made of rigid material, often with a handle, used to carry liquids or small items.
2. n. The amount held in this container.
3. n. Part of a piece of machinery that resembles a bucket.
4. n. An old car that is not in good working order.
5. n. The basket.
6. n. A field goal.
7. n. A mechanism for avoiding the allocation of targets in cases of mismanagement.
8. n. A storage space in a hash table for every item sharing a particular key.
9. v. To place inside a bucket.
10. v. To rain heavily.
11. v. To travel very quickly.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A vessel for drawing up water from a well, or for catching, holding, or carrying water, sap, or other liquids.
2. n. A vessel (as a tub or scoop) for hoisting and conveying coal, ore, grain, etc.
3. n. One of the receptacles on the rim of a water wheel into which the water rushes, causing the wheel to revolve; also, a float of a paddle wheel.
4. n. The valved piston of a lifting pump.
5. n. one of vanes on the rotor of a turbine.
6. n. a bucketfull.
7. v. To draw or lift in, or as if in, buckets.
8. v. To pour over from a bucket; to drench.
9. v. To ride (a horse) hard or mercilessly.
10. v. To make, or cause to make (the recovery), with a certain hurried or unskillful forward swing of the body.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a roughly cylindrical vessel that is open at the top
2. v. put into a bucket
3. v. carry in a bucket
4. n. the quantity contained in a bucket