bucketful

From bucket +‎ -ful. Compare Old English būcful, būcfull (“bucketful”).

bucketful (plural bucketfuls or bucketsful)

1. The quantity contained in a bucket.

   Synonym: pailful

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     "I had a fire lit there, and there is a bucketful of coals. You will be pretty comfortable, I hope."

2. (by extension) A large quantity.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:lot

   • 1863, Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby:

     But out of the water he dared not put his head; for the rain came down by bucketsful, and the hail hammered like shot on the stream, and churned it into foam; […]