Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bucket n.

1. in pl., boots or shoes.

[UK]Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 309: To my worthy friend, Sir John Blubber, Knt. I give and bequeath my padders, my stampers, my buckets, otherwise my boots.
[UK] ‘Monmouth Street’ in Lover’s Harmony No. 19 148: You may get new ‘buckets’ for a bob!

2. (UK Und./Aus.) a glass.

[Aus]Mercury (Hobart) 23 Apr. 2/5: [from the Stranraer Free Press] [...] a bucket, a tastin’, a toothfu’, a cinder.
[UK]C. Hindley Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 305: ‘Oh!’ said the man addressed, ‘I’m on the rocks, but never mind, come and have a bucket (i.e. glass) of rum.’.
[UK]‘Bartimeus’ ‘The Greater Love’ in Naval Occasions 221: Now, Shortie, fill up! Snatcher, you’d better have a bucket.
[Aus]D. O’Grady A Bottle of Sandwiches 169: Three ‘buckets’ of foaming suds, amber in colour, with an inch of collar spilling over the rim.
[Aus]Aus. Word Map 🌐 bucket [...] ‘A bucket was a jug of mixed spirits that you could get for $5 at St Pauls Tavern in Brisbane’.

3. (Can./US Und.) a county or local prison; later uses underpinned by bucket and pail n.

[US]Ade Stories of the Street and of the Town (1941) 94: No more drillin’ in the snow; no soup houses; never again in a bucket.
[US]R. Chandler ‘Goldfish’ in Red Wind (1946) 170: He’s too stir-wise for me. I smell of the bucket.
[US]R.O. Boyer Dark Ship 227: When I get out of the bucket some of these fakers shoot one of our guys.
[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 6: If Schwiefka wasn’t always tryin’ to chisel [...] we wouldn’t get tossed in the bucket so much.
[US]M. Braly Felony Tank (1962) 81: You can’t miss it when you’ve been around as many of these buckets as I have.
[US]H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 27: So off I went to the bucket, for rape.
[Can]R. Caron Go-Boy! 239: After I had busted out of the county bucket in Saint John the staff there didn’t want me around any more.
[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak.
(con. 1930s) W. Fiennes Snow Geese (2002) 168: Marshall was sentenced to thirty days in the Regina bucket.

4. an automobile, esp. old and/or dilapidated.

[US]R.L. Bellem ‘Broken Melody’ in Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 ‘Drive, señor!’ I headed my bucket toward nowhere in particular.
[US]R.L. Bellem ‘Feature Snatch!’ Dan Turner - Hollywood Detective Feb. 🌐 S big black Cad sedan just ahead of my bucket.
[US]L.A. Times 29 Feb. 24/4: They’re ones driving the fancy cars [...] My friends? They’re driving around in buckets.
[US]S. Ferranti Street Legends n.p.: Me and Wayne went to pick up a bucket he had parked across town. He used the car to stash stuff in.
[UK]D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 237: We piled out of the bucket and entered the tenement.
P. Temple ‘High Art’ in The Red Hand 73: ‘She’s much classier than this bucket suggests’.

5. (US prison) a cell.

[US]Rayman & Blau Riker’s 230: I go into his bucket, and I look through his pictures.

6. in physiological contexts.

(a) the vagina, esp. when large or loose.

[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
Chris Smith ‘Don’t Slip Me in the Dozen’ 🎵 It’s my cup, it’s my bucket, it’s my little red bucket.
[UK]M. Manning Get Your Cock Out 115: Dandy almost fainted when the mad woman started to sew up her bucket.

(b) (US, also brown bucket) the anus, the buttocks; thus bucket queen, a male homosexual who takes the active role in anal intercourse.

[US]‘Justinian’ Americana Sexualis 14: Bucket, n. Posterior.
[US]G. Legman ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry Sex Variants.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 34: brown bucket The hinder part; the rectum.
[US]‘Swasarnt Nerf’ et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 4: bucket: Posterior (clothed outline).
[US]‘Weldon Hill’ Onionhead (1958) 273: ‘I just hope we don’t get a torpedo shoved up our bucket’.
[US]Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 17: The man who fucks in anal intercourse, as opposed to the one who is fucked [...] bucket queen. [Ibid.] 23: The posterior [...] bucket. [Ibid.] 158: bucket a portable toilet. By extension, the anus.
[US]Donna Allen Raped Bitch Wife [ebook] ‘[I]t’s her ass I’m really crazy about. Always did love that bucket of yours, Claudine’.
[US]R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐.
[UK]L. Gould Shagadelically Speaking 60: heinie, butt; bum; ass; [...] bottom; bucket.

7. any form of motor vehicle, boat or airplane that has become run down and dilapidated.

[US]B. Traven Death Ship 11: Shit the bucket. There are lots of other ships in the world.
[US]R.L. Bellem ‘Death’s Passport’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 115/1: I climbed into my bucket and souped the kidneys out of it.
[US]D. Runyon Runyon à la Carte 127: Homer goes to a parking lot not far away where he keeps an old bucket parked.
[US]Heggen & Logan Mister Roberts I i: You’re stuck on this old bucket.
[US]New Yorker 7 Feb. 82: You’re going on that French bucket [W&F].
[US]E. Stephens Blow Negative! 270: It must be a drag on that bucket without him around.
[US](con. 1940s) M. Dibner Admiral (1968) 32: Once this bucket gets under way I doubt that her damaged deck and hull plates can stand the strain.
[Aus]I. Moffitt U-Jack Society 108: More than 300 cars were out on the straight [...] Funny cars, Buckets, Gassers.
[UK]G. Young Slow Boats to China (1983) 92: A crooked shipowner gave me a ship – a bucket, really.
[US]E. Ruggero 38 North Yankee 327: Why don’t you stash those buckets [jeeps] in some cover.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 2: bucket – car.
[UK](con. 1918) P. Barker Eye in the Door 62: ‘Here she [i.e. an airplane] is,’ Dundas said, patting the fuselage. ‘Terrible old bucket.’.
[UK]J. Baker Shooting In The Dark (2002) 176: The old bucket’ll last long enough to get you home.
[US]Mad mag. Aug. 50: This show is all about taking a bucket and making it pimp.
[US]Simon & Burns Generation Kill ‘Get Some’ ep. 1 [TV script] Only got this bucket [i.e. a Humvee] five days ago.

8. (US) a plump woman, an unattractive woman.

[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
[US](con. 1960s) G. Washington Blood Brothers 167: I know she looks like an old bucket now, but after six months here, she’ll look more and more like Liz Taylor to you.

9. (US campus) an incompetent, clumsy person.

[US]H. Searls Hero Ship 200: Most of the conversation in their kitchen was of steam and bull—English—and of slashes, who studied too hard or buckets who studied not hard enough.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 2: bucket – someone who feels embarrassed, down on luck, or insignificant. ‘I stuck my foot in my mouth in front of my professor, and now I feel like a major bucket.’.

10. (US) in basketball, a scoring shot.

[US]W.D. Myers Hoops 47: I could have either passed or went for the bucket myself. I went for the bucket.
[US]Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 127: On defense, R.C. holds his man to a single bucket.
[US]G. Pelecanos Way Home (2009) 173: Christ stayed on court [...] telling him to watch the extra step on his drive to the bucket.

11. see bucket bong

In compounds

bucket cunt (n.) (also bucket fanny) [coarsely joc. use of SE/sense 4a above + cunt n. (1)/fanny n.1 (1)]

a large vagina.

Amelie on Urban Dict. 🌐 bucket cunt a ho with a large vaginal entry. Damn that bitch has got a mammoth/dripping bucket cunt.
[UK]Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: bucket fanny n. A spacious vagina. Also Tardis fanny / twat.

In phrases

dropped in the bucket (adj.)

(US prison) in prison.

[US]Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 26: Dropped in the Bucket Placed in prison.
paint the bucket (v.)

(US gay) to have anal intercourse.

[US](ref. to mid-1950s) B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 88: anal intercourse [...] paint the bucket (mid ’50s).
[US]R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐 anal intercourse: [...] Syn: paint the bucket.

In exclamations

up your bucket!

(US) a general excl. of dismissal.

[US]‘Lou Rand’ Gay Detective (2003) 19: Right back came the very earthy natural tones of the handholder: ‘Up ye’ bucket, Butch!’.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

bucket bong (n.) (also bucket) [bong n.1 ]

(Aus./US drugs) a form of gravity pipe for smoking marijuana, made with a 2-litre (3½-pint) plastic bottle and a bucket.

‘Smokin’ Sl.’ at Mary Jane mag. (Melbourne) Sept. 🌐 Bucket Bong: Water pipe made from a bucket and plastic bottle.
[Aus]J. Birmingham Tasmanian Babes Fiasco (1998) 175: I [...] made a bucket bong from which we pulled a thousand cones.
teentoday.co.uk 🌐 CannabisIn the form of: spliff, joint, reefer, yogurt, bong, pipe, bucket.
XPress Online (Perth) 🌐 Likewise, when someone does the dishes by pouring lighter fluid on the sink and throwing a match on it, or marvels at the miracle that is the bucket bong [...] each and every scenario is forced and unnatural.
www.haveabucket.com 🌐 You are not stoned enough to view this website. Please have 4 buckets and make sure you are completely bong-eyed before going any further.
[Aus]T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 44: They say drugs help, but every time I experiment [...] I end up horizontal. Amyl nitrate? Crack my head on the dance floor. Bucket bong? Instant snooze. Speed? Nose bleed.
bucket chat (n.) [? the feeding of lambs from buckets; cheat n. (1)]

(UK Und.) a sheep.

[UK]J. Poulter Discoveries (1774) 40: They are great Priggers of Caunes and Bucket-chats; that is Sheep and Fowl.
[UK]Whole Art of Thieving 34: They [i.e. gypsies] are great Priggers of Caunes and Bucket-chats, that is, sheep and fowl.
buckethead (n.) [-head sfx]

1. (US) a fool, a simpleton; thus bucket-headed adj., stupid.

[US]L. Feininger ‘The Kin-der-Kids’ [comic strip] Git out of the way, you bucket-headed lunatic.
[US]N. Algren ‘El Presidente de Mejico’ in Algren Texas Stories (1995) 83: Hey, Buckethead [...] are all them Jews as crazy as you?
[US]Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
[US](con. WWII) J.O. Killens And Then We Heard The Thunder (1964) 68: He’s telling you right, Bucket-head. [Ibid.] 133: I told that bucket-head bastard.
[US]C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 164: Meaning you and your bucket-headed partner are on your way to Fox Hill Prison if you fuck with me.

2. (US black) a woman, esp. a fellatrix.

[US]Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 buckethead Definition: a female, usually one that sucks dick. Example: Kiesha an all her friends are bucketheads, it’d be easy to pimp ’em.
bucketmouth (n.) (US)

1. a chatterer.

[US]L. Dills CB Slanguage 18: Bucket Mouth: loud mouth or gossip.
Seedtime and Harvest 🌐 Just because Sister Bucketmouth, the church gossip, reports tales that are true, that doesn’t mean you and I need to give EAR to her and to THINK about the things she says.

2. one who habitually uses ‘bad language’.

[US]L. Dills CB Slanguage 18: Bucket Mouth: [...] obscene or profane talker.
E.N. Corder Citizens Band 69: What about ... the bucket mouth who reads porno over Twenty? [HDAS].

In phrases

bucket about (v.) (also bucket up, go buckety) [? image of a bucket floating on water]

to move backwards/forwards/from side to side, to oscillate; thus adv. buckety-blam, of movement, abruptly, sharply.

[UK]J. Manchon Le Slang 73: to bucket about the place, bringueballer.
[US]R.L. Bellem ‘Heads You lose’ in Dan Turner Hollywood Detective Feb. 🌐 We both pelted buckety-blam to the convertible.
[US]R.B. Smith ‘Doing Nothing Was Wonderful’ in Brookhouser These Were Our Years (1959) 72: No jolly little round songs about the friendly little mongoose going buckety-buckety down the big big road.
[US](con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 208: The flivvers bucketed up the far side and soon drew away.
bucket (down) (v.) [as if poured from a bucket]

to rain very heavily.

[[UK]‘A. Burton’ Adventures of Johnny Newcome I 31: While rain by buckets-full came down].
[Scot]Chambers’s Journal Dec. 844/1: Tramps don’t walk about a marsh in bucketing rain in the midnight hours, fidgeting to attack somebody.
[US]W. Henry Who Rides with Wyatt 75: A driving wind and a sleety snow [was] bucketing down off the Dragoons, across Goose Flats.
[Scot]I. Rankin Strip Jack 199: It bucketed down [...] Hardly any bugger went out that day.
[Ire]G. Coughlan Everyday Eng. and Sl. 🌐 Bucketing (v): raining very heavily.
cop a bucket (v.)

to be attacked (hysterically).

[UK]Eve. Standard 14 Mar. 15/5: Joan Bakewell has been copping a bucket [...] on social media about off-the-cuff remarks about anorexia she made.
get off the bucket (v.)

a phr. of general dismissal.

[UK]P. Theroux Picture Palace 228: ‘Get off the bucket, I’m serious,’ I said.
stick (someone) in the bucket (v.)

(US bnlack/police) to imprison.

[US]R. Conot Rivers of Blood 35: ‘The people is tired. They is tired of being stuck in the bucket by the police. They is tired of this molestation!’.
tip a bucket (v.)

(Aus.) to speak openly, without restraint.

[Aus]P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] I’ve been dealing with the fucking media for forty years. Ms Hillier thought she’d have a better chance of getting me to tip a bucket if she sent you.