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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

bucket list en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (Australia) audio
  • /ˈbʌkɪt ˌlɪst/ (Received-Pronunciation)
  • /ˈbʌkət ˌlɪst/ (General-American)

Etymology

From bucket + list. Sense 1 (“list of tasks arising during a meeting”) may allude to a notional bucket in which tasks to be dealt with later are placed. Sense 2 (“list of things to accomplish before one’s death”) refers to kick the bucket (“to die”), bucket in this sense possibly referring to a beam to which a pig is hung by its heels after it has been slaughtered (possibly from Old French buquet (“balance; trebuchet”)). It was coined by the American and British screenwriter Justin Zackham in 1999 when he drew up “Justin’s List of Things to Do before I Kick the Bucket” which he shortened to “Justin’s Bucket List”. The first item on his list was to have a screenplay produced at a major Hollywood studio. After a few years, it occurred to him that the notion of a “bucket list” could be the basis for a film, so he wrote a screenplay about two dying men racing to complete their own bucket lists with the time they had left, which became the film The Bucket List (2007). The term was then popularized by the film.

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic) A list of tasks arising during a meeting that are put aside to be dealt with later.
    • The figures and section drawings contain many of the most important locus numbers. We are not publishing a complete bucket list. [1990, Eric M. Meyers, Carol Meyers, James F. Strange, “Introduction”, in Excavations at the Ancient Synagogue of Gush Ḥalav (Meiron Excavation Project; V), Winona Lake, Ind.: [F]or the American Schools of Oriental Research by Eisenbrauns, →ISBN, page 1:
    • As you go through each step during the session, keep a "bucket list" of items that will need followup action 1997, Suzan L[inn] Jackson, “Getting Started”, in The ISO14001 Implementation Guide: Creating an Integrated Management System, New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 226:
    • A "bucket" list is simply a formal procedure for recording items of concern that arise during work on other agenda items. 1978, James D. Anderson, Ezra Earl Jones, “The Primary Task of Ministry”, in The Management of Ministry, San Francisco, Calif.: Harper & Row, →ISBN, page 151:
    • Focus on only one issue at a time. Whenever a new issue arises, don't ignore it, but don't allow the meeting to get distracted from the current topic. Always record each new issue on a posted "parking lot" or "bucket list" in the meeting room. 2004, Tom Kendrick, “Meeting Execution”, in The Project Management Tool Kit: 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Amacom, American Management Association, published 2010, →ISBN, page 87:
  2. (idiomatic) A list of things to accomplish before one's death.
    • The beauty of bucket lists is that just as they represent us and our dreams, like us they also grow and change. You will be surprised once you have begun the bucket list journey at how opportunities spring up around you. New ideas beg to be added to your list. Even the act of completing a bucket list goal can be the source of further exploration. 2014, Lara Krupika, “How to Use this Book”, in Bucket List Living for Moms: Becoming a More Adventurous Parent, Cork, County Cork: BookBaby, →ISBN:
    • "They told me hiking down into the canyon was on their bucket list." / She nodded. "I hear that all the time. People all over the world have the Grand Canyon on their bucket list." / Jake frowned. "I don't have a bucket list." 2010, Annalisa Daughety, chapter 23, in Love is Grand (A Walk in the Park; 3), Uhrichsville, Oh.: Barbour Publishing, →ISBN, page 168:
    • Q: What projects are you working on now and in the near future? [Rob Reiner] I'm hoping by the end of October to be shooting a film I've been working on called "The Bucket List," starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. […] They find out they are terminal. They know they don't have much longer to live. It's about working out the issues you need to work out before you die. […] Q: Do you have your own "bucket list"? [Reiner] You know, I don't. I've gone on with my life always trying to do positive things and make things better and the world better. […] I want to see my kids do well, but that's not a "bucket list" 2006 September 2, Peterson Gonzaga, “Reiner gets animated in ‘Everybody’s Hero’”, in Herald News, West Paterson, N.J.: Gannett, →ISSN, →OCLC, page D4, columns 3–4:
    • I'm a helicopter pilot, not a writer. Still, it's been a dream of mine to someday write a book. It's ranked near the top on my list of things I want to do someday, my "bucket list," if you will. 2009 August 10, Robert Deeter, chapter 8, in Bullseye: Journal of a Black Hawk Pilot, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 102:
  3. (broadly, idiomatic) A list of things to accomplish before one's death. ▸ A list of things to accomplish before a certain deadline or in a certain time period.
    • a winter bucket list
  4. (idiomatic) A data structure containing buckets used in a hashing algorithm.
    • In place of direct storage in the block we might substitute pointers to linked bucket lists of the elements having the same hash addresses. After hashing B#95;x and retrieving the pointer to the appropriate bucket list, we search the list for B#95;x, and if not found, add it to the end of the list. 1975, Terrence W. Pratt, “Data”, in Programming Languages: Design and Implementation, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, →ISBN, page 83:
    • Using a bucket list structure[…], the program sorts each incoming word serially, constructing a list within each of 256 buckets for good words of a given alphabetic range […] 1960 July 25, J. C. Olney, Feat, an Inventory Program for Information Retrieval (FN-4018), Santa Monica, Calif.: System Development Corporation; quoted in Mary Elizabeth Stevens, “Operational Considerations”, in Automatic Indexing: A State-of-the-Art Report (National Bureau of Standards Monograph; 91), Washington, D.C.: National Bureau of Standards, United States Department of Commerce, 30 March 1965, reissued February 1970, →OCLC, page 170:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
bucket lists Number=Plur lexicographic

Coordinates

wish list · wish list · dream list · dream list · to-do list

Relateds

want list · shopping list · laundry list

Translations (34)

el λίστα επιθυμιών (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · fi veivilista (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · ca llista de tasques (list of things to accomplish before a certain deadline or in a certain time period) · fi lista lokeroita (data structure containing buckets used in a hashing algorithm) · de langfristige Wunschliste (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · tr yapılacaklar listesi (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · sv bucketlist (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · uk список справ перед смертю (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · pl lista rzeczy do zrobienia na później (list of tasks arising during a meeting that are put aside to be dealt with later) · it lista dei desideri (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · ja 死ぬまでしたい事 (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · nl loodjeslijst (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · ca llista de coses a fer (list of tasks arising during a meeting that are put aside to be dealt with later) · pl bucket list (data structure containing buckets used in a hashing algorithm) · fr liste de choses à faire avant de mourir (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · fi tehtävien asioiden lista (list of things to accomplish before a certain deadline or in a certain time period) · cmn 平生夢想單 /平生梦想单 (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · ca llista de tasques (list of tasks arising during a meeting that are put aside to be dealt with later) · is klakkslisti (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · pl lista rzeczy do zrobienia przed deadline'em (list of things to accomplish before a certain deadline or in a certain time period) · de Löffelliste (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · pl lista rzeczy do zrobienia przed śmiercią (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · nl bucketlist (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · fi tehtävälista (list of tasks arising during a meeting that are put aside to be dealt with later) · ca llista de coses a fer abans de morir (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · hu bakancslista (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · sh ли̏ста по̀сљедњӣх же̏ља (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · ca llista de coses a fer (list of things to accomplish before a certain deadline or in a certain time period) · sh lȉsta pòsljednjīh žȅlja (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · cmn 平生願望單 /平生愿望单 (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · ru список того, что нужно сделать за жизнь (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · cmn 人生願望清單 /人生愿望清单 (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · pt lista de desejos (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death) · es lista de cosas por / para hacer antes de morir (a list of things to accomplish before one’s death)

wikipedia: The Wall Street Journal · wikipedia: Ben Zimmer