rustbucket

[ ruhst-buhk-it ]

/ ˈrʌstˌbʌk ɪt /

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noun Slang.

an old, run-down freighter, especially one whose hull is covered with rust.

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Origin of rustbucket

First recorded in 1940–45; rust + bucket

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

Example sentences from the Web for rustbucket

An 18-year-old Swedish rapper/Internet meme has inspired legions of impressionable teens to get based in bucket hats.
The Cult of Yung Lean: ‘I’m Building An Anarchistic Society From the Ground Up’|Marlow Stern|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Tom Rust, a spokesman for the House Ethics Committee, declined to comment to The Daily Beast.
The Felon Who Wouldn’t Leave Congress|Ben Jacobs, David Freedlander|December 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Early one morning I was passing out hot water, when a man showed me a bucket of blood from his slashed wrists and asked for help.
A Million Ways to Die in Prison|Daniel Genis|December 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Blister rust is like having the flu; the pine beetle is like fast acting leukemia.
What It Takes to Kill a Grizzly Bear|Doug Peacock|November 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Briefly, blister rust is an Asian fungus introduced from Europe to America around 1900.
What It Takes to Kill a Grizzly Bear|Doug Peacock|November 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It was encircled by a ditch, but the drawbridge was down, and the rust on its chains argued that long had it been so.
St. Martin's Summer|Rafael Sabatini
A fellow was dropt down in the bucket, and soon bawled out from the bottom, "I have found the punch-ladle, so wind me up."
The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun;|Various
The Dimbula picked up her pilot and came in covered with salt and red rust.
Kipling Stories and Poems Every Child Should Know, Book II|Rudyard Kipling
A broken broom, covered with very ancient cobwebs, lay under one manger, and the remnants of a stable-bucket under another.
The Portsmouth Road and Its Tributaries|Charles G. Harper
Great pains have been taken, and the great rust thereof is not gone out, not even by fire.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version|Various

British Dictionary definitions for rustbucket

rust bucket

noun

slang something that is run-down or dilapidated, esp a very badly rusted car

adjective rustbucket

informal run-down or dilapidatedrustbucket factories

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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