bucket seat

American

noun

an individual seat with a rounded or contoured back, as in some automobiles and airplanes, often made to fold forward.

bucket seat British

noun

a seat in a car, aircraft, etc, having curved sides that partially enclose and support the body

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of bucket seat

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

bucket seat

The Lotus puts you in Mach’s bucket seat, the center of the universe.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

In a film called “Motorcycle,” the viewer, ensconced in a vibrating bucket seat, stuck his or her head into a box, where footage simulating zooming through Brooklyn unspooled.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 2, 2019

Bones no longer has to practice his crooning from a bucket seat.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2019

The Cyclone has a small bucket seat, close to the ground, and two big wheels on either side the size of large pizza pans.

From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2018

Ralph slipped through the window into a bucket seat, made sure his tail was safely inside, grasped the wheel, took a deep breath, and went pb-pb-b-b.

From "Ralph S. Mouse" by Beverly Cleary

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023