[f. BUCKET sb.1]
1. trans. To lift (water) in buckets; also with out, up. Also fig.
1649. Wandering Jew, Alderman’s F. (1857), 21. Deepe wells by continuall bucketting the water out, are in the end drawne dry.
1872. A. J. Ellis, in Philol. Soc. Trans. (1873), 31. The Greek, that great well whence we bucket up our abstract terms.
2. To pour buckets of water over; to drench.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. II. (1651), 239. He would have his patient … to be bucketed, or have the water powred on his head.
a. 1670. Hacket, Abp. Williams, II. 194. Wo be to him whose head is bucketed with waters of a scalding bath.
3. slang. To cheat, swindle.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v., To bucket a person is synonymous with putting him in the well.
1828. Scott, Diary, in Lockhart (1839), IX. 253. Thurtell … must in slang phrase have bucketed his palls.
4. To ride (a horse) hard, reckless of his fatigue; to ‘pump’ (take it out of him by bucketfuls).
1856. [see BUCKETING vbl. sb. 2].
1868. Tottenham, C. Villars, I. 243. Bucketing his wretched horse home to Cambridge, regardless of its remonstrances and flagging pace.
5. Rowing. intr. To hurry the forward swing of the body preparatory to taking the stroke; also trans., as to bucket the recovery; and causally, to bucket an oarsman or crew.
1869. [see BUCKETING ppl. a.]
1876. Besant & Rice, Gold. Butterfly, xv. 130. He was not so straight in the back as an Oxford stroke; and he bucketed about a good deal, but he got along.
1882. St. James’s Gaz., 15 March, 6/2. Smith shows a considerable tendency to bucket the recovery. Ibid. (1884), 25 Jan., 6/2. Style and form are best taught to men if they are not bucketed.
Mod. (Oxford Coach)—‘Don’t bucket your bodies!’ They bucketed over the course: they rowed a bucketing stroke.
