A bucket is a round container with a handle, used for carrying water, sand, or other materials. You've probably seen metal buckets on farms for feeding animals, plastic beach buckets for building sandcastles, or sturdy buckets for mopping floors. The handle makes it easy to carry, and the wide opening at the top lets you scoop things up or pour them out quickly.

Buckets are surprisingly important tools. Fire brigades once formed bucket brigades, passing water-filled buckets from person to person to fight fires before fire trucks existed. Farmers use buckets to collect milk, gather eggs, or feed livestock. Construction workers carry tools and materials in buckets. Even though buckets seem simple, they're one of those inventions that humans have relied on for thousands of years because they work so well.

As a verb, to bucket means to pour or fall in large amounts, especially quickly or heavily, like rain that’s bucketing down.