bucketful

American  

[buhk-it-fool] / ˈbʌk ɪtˌfʊl /

noun

plural

bucketfuls

1. the amount that a bucket can hold.

   a bucketful of water.

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Spelling

See -ful.

Etymology

Origin of bucketful

First recorded in 1555–65; bucket + -ful

Example Sentences

I have friends who choke down Greek yogurt by the bucketful, who eat handfuls of grilled chicken at a time, who dead lift their own body weight.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026

The family unearthed bivalves by the bucketful, reaching the most plentiful beaches with their motorized metal dinghy.

From Scientific American • Jan. 24, 2022

I could eat that garlic rice by the bucketful, same for the bone-in chicken adobo legs and thighs coated in a rich vinegar/soy marinade.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 24, 2021

A tacky chair in a trailer park looks “like a clown had vomited on it”; a small-time crook is “as slick as two eels in a bucketful of snot.”

From New York Times • Jul. 17, 2020

I was lathered up in calamine lotion and had swallowed a bucketful of antihistamines with my morning orange juice.

From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda