Bucket
A bucket is typically a watertight, vertical cylinder or truncated cone or square, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carrying handle called the bail.[1][2]
A bucket is usually an open-top container. In contrast, a pail can have a top or lid and is a shipping container. In common usage, the two terms are often used interchangeably.
Types and uses
There are many types of buckets;
- A water bucket is used to carry, water
- Household and garden buckets are used for carrying liquids and granular products
- Elaborate ceremonial or ritual buckets in bronze, ivory or other materials are found in several ancient or medieval cultures and are sometimes known by the Latin for bucket, situla
- Large scoops or buckets are attached to loaders and telehandlers for agricultural and earth-moving purposes
- Crusher buckets attached to excavators are used for crushing and recycling material in the Construction Industry
- A lunch box is sometimes called a lunch pail, or a lunch bucket.
- Buckets can be re-purposed as seats, tool caddies, hydroponic gardens, chamber pots, "street" drums, or livestock feeders, or for long term food storage by survivalists[3]
- Buckets are often used as children's toys to shape and carry sand on a beach or in a sandpit.
Shipping containers
As a shipping container, the word "pail" is a technical term for a bucket shaped package with a sealed top or lid which is used as a shipping container for chemicals and industrial products.[4]
Gallery
- Roman bronze situla from Germany, 2nd-3rd century
- A wooden bucket
- German 19th century leather fire-buckets. With wood, leather was the most common material for buckets before modern times
- A man carrying two buckets
- A young lady carrying a bucket, drawing by German artist Heinrich Zille.
- An excavator bucket.
- Plastic yellow bucket
- A metal bucket.
English literature
The bucket has been used in many phrases and idioms in the English language.
- Kick the bucket: a derogatory term for someone's death
- Drop the bucket on: implicating a person (Australian slang)
- A drop in the bucket: a small, inadequate amount in relation to how much is requested or asked
- Bucket list: a list of activities an individual wishes to undertake before death
Unit of measurement
As an obsolete unit of measurement, at least one source documents a bucket as being equivalent to 4 imperial gallons.[6]
References
- "Bucket". Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 9 September 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
- Flexner, Stuart; Hauck, :epmpre, eds. (1993) [1987]. Random House Unabridged Dictionary p (hardcover) (second ed.). New York: Random House. p. 271. ISBN 0-679-42917-4.
- Durado, John. "Gamma Lids for Long Term Storage". Pyramid Reviews - Prepping for Life. Archived from the original on 3 March 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- Soroka, W. Illustrated Glossary of Packaging Terminology (Second ed.). Institute of Packaging Professionals. Archived from the original on 2011-01-29.
- "The Science of Measurement: A Historical Survey". Retrieved May 23, 2018.
External links
Look up bucket in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Buckets. |