Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) to deceive, to cheat, to swindle, to ruin, esp. to rob an accomplice of their share of a robbery; thus bucketer n.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 230: To bucket a person is synonymous with putting him in the well. See Well. Such treatment is said to be a bucketting concern.
1822		Life and Trial of James Mackcoull 23: You who have not only fought shy, and bucketed your pells for many a good thing you did, but who, contrary to all rules of honour among family-men, left your friend on French leave, and ran to town as if you smelled a gallow’s-trap at your heels. [Ibid.] 115: A number of the higher order thieves [...] stood round jeering and laughing, making the most ridiculous gestures, and, as they said, enjoying themselves at the expense of a bucketer.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 May 24/3: Mother province sends a powerful eight, whose chance looks rosy despite the fact that Brisbane critics accuse them of ‘bucketing’ in their work.
1929		D.H. Clarke In the reign of Rothstein 146: After three trials ‘Dandy Phil’ finally was sentenced to a long term in Atlanta for his bucketing activities.

2. (Aus.) to disdain, to denigrate, to despise.

1974		Australian (Sydney) 1 Apr. 6/7: While it might be valid to find Brisbane lacking in Adelaide’s grace [...] or Melbourne’s dignity, it is not valid to bucket it in total.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 110: A carefully orchestrated shit-slinging campaign by a few élitist ex-pats, traitors and plummy-voiced kapok-krunchers who make a quid in the colour supplements by bucketing their bushland heritage.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 11: Bucket: To criticise or in turn be criticised. One can bucket an adversary or, in one’s turn, ‘be bucketed’ by the self same person.