bucket shop

See synonyms for bucket shop on Thesaurus.com

noun

Stock Exchange. an unsound, unethical, or overly aggressive brokerage house.
Slang. any shady commercial agency, as one dealing in illegally priced theater tickets.

Origin of bucket shop

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75; originally a cheap drinking establishment, allegedly so called because liquor was mixed or sold in buckets

Words Nearby bucket shop

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use bucket shop in a sentence

It made Rockefeller's little kerosene speculation look like a bucket shop.
The Gentle Grafter | O. Henry
Creed is as akin to righteousness as a 'bucket shop' to the kingdom of heaven.
Wise or Otherwise | Lydia Leavitt
A bucket shop is where you can buy stock in small lots, putting down a dollar a share as margin.
Helping Himself | Horatio Alger
The bucket shop posts them as the terms upon which its patrons may make bets with the keeper.
Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World | Clifton R. Wooldridge
The bucket shop proprietor is ready to make all deals offered in any commodity that fluctuates in price.
Twenty Years a Detective in the Wickedest City in the World | Clifton R. Wooldridge

British Dictionary definitions for bucket shop

bucket shop

noun

an unregistered firm of stockbrokers that engages in speculation with clients' funds
mainly British any small business that cannot be relied upon, esp one selling cheap airline tickets

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

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