Bucket

This article is about the open top container. For other uses, seeBucket (disambiguation).

Water well buckets

AnEdo periodJapanesebucket used to hold water for fire fighting

Abucketis typically a watertight, verticalcylinderortruncatedconeor square, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carryinghandlecalled thebail.

A bucket is usually an open-top container. In contrast, apailcan have a top or lid and is ashipping container.In non-technical usage, the two terms are often used interchangeably.

Types and uses

A number of bucket types exist, used for a variety of purposes. Though most of these are functional purposes, a number, including those constructed from precious metals, are used for ceremonial purposes. Common types of bucket and their adjoining purposes include:

• Water buckets used to carrywater
• Household and garden buckets used for carrying liquids and granular products
• Elaborate ceremonial or ritual buckets constructed ofbronze,ivoryor other materials, found in several ancient or medieval cultures, sometimes known by the Latin for bucket,situla
• Large scoops or buckets attached toloadersandtelehandlersfor landscaping agricultural and purposes
• Crusher bucketsattached to excavators used for crushing and recycling material in the construction industry
• Buckets shaped likecastlesoften used as children's toys to shape and carry sand on abeachor in asandpit
• Buckets in special shapes such as cast iron buckets or smelting buckets to hold liquid metal at high temperatures

Though not always bucket shaped,lunch boxesare sometimes known as lunch pails or a lunch bucket. Buckets can be repurposed as seats, tool caddies, hydroponic gardens, chamber pots, "street" drums, or livestock feeders, amongst other uses. Buckets are also repurposed for the use of long term food storage bysurvivalists.

Shipping containers

Main article:pail (container)

When in reference to ashipping container,the term "pail" is used as a technical term, specifically referring to a bucket shaped package with a sealed top or lid, which is then used as a transport container for chemicals and industrial products.

Gallery

• 
  Roman bronzesitulafrom Germany, 2nd–3rd century
• 
  A wooden bucket
• 
  German 19th century leather firebuckets; the most common material used for buckets, alongside wood, before the invention of many modern materials was leather
• 
  A man carrying two buckets
• 
  A young lady carrying a bucket, drawing by German artistHeinrich Zille
• 
  Amopbucket with awringer
• 
  Anexcavator bucket
• 
  A crusher bucket
• 
  Ahelicopter bucket
• 
  A plastic yellow bucket
• 
  A metal bucket

English language phrases and idioms

The bucket has been used in many phrases and idioms in theEnglish language,some of which are regional or specific to the use of English in different English-speaking countries.

• Kick the bucket:an informal term referring to someone's death
• Drop the bucket on: to implicate a person in something (from Australian slang)
• A drop in the bucket: a small, inadequate amount in relation to how much is requested or asked, taken from thebiblicalBook of Isaiah,chapter 40,verse 15
• 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 (18 L; 4.8 US gal).

See also

• Bobrinski Bucket
• Bucket brigade
• Coal scuttle
• Mop
• Pail (container)
• There's a Hole in My Bucket
• Veronica Bucket

External links

• "Five-gallon farm collectibles" by Jennifer M. Latzke
• "Uses for Five Gallon Buckets
• U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warning
• "Utilizing a bucket for self-defense"onYouTube