A bucket or pail is typically a watertight, vertical cylinder or truncated cone, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carrying handle called the bail.
Building materials and solvents have been packaged in large metal pails, but in recent decades plastic buckets have been greatly favored. Plastic buckets have more uses due to the popularity of plastic for food products and the tendency of metal pails to rust.
Types and uses
There are many types of buckets;
A water bucket is used to carry waterHousehold and garden buckets are often used for carrying liquids and granular productsElaborate 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, situlaLarge scoops or buckets are attached to loaders and telehandlers for agricultural and earthmoving purposesCrusher buckets attached to excavators are used for crushing and recycling material in the Construction IndustryA lunch box is sometimes called a lunch pail, or a lunch bucket.Buckets can be reused as seats, tool caddies, hydroponic gardens, chamberpots, "street" drums, or livestock feeders, or for long term food storage by Doomsday_PreppersBuckets are often used as children's toys to shape and carry sand on a beach or in a sandpitAs 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.
The bucket has been used in many phrases and idioms in the English language.
Kick the bucket: a euphemism for someone's death.Drop the bucket on: which refers to implicating a person.A drop in the bucket: which means a small, inadequate amount when is given in terms of how much is requested or asked.Bucket list: a list of activities one wishes to undertake before death.
