pail

/peɪl/

/peɪl/

Other forms: pails

A pail is a round, open container with a handle. At the beach, you can use a pail to carry water and sand, and also to mold the towers of your sandcastle.

You can also call a pail a bucket — although pail implies a smaller container, exactly the sort a child would use, along with a small shovel, when playing in a sandbox. You might also use a pail to catch drips from a leaky ceiling, or pour a small amount of paint into a pail when you're touching up the trim in your bedroom. This word comes from the Old French paelle, "cooking or frying pan."

Definitions of pail

1. noun

   a roughly cylindrical vessel that is open at the top
   synonyms: bucket

   types:

   cannikin

   a wooden bucket

   dinner bucket, dinner pail

   a pail in which a workman carries his lunch or dinner

   dredging bucket

   a bucket for lifting material from a channel or riverbed

   kibble

   an iron bucket used for hoisting in wells or mining

   slop jar, slop pail

   a large pail used to receive waste water from a washbasin or chamber pot

   wine bucket, wine cooler

   a bucket of ice used to chill a bottle of wine

   clamshell, grapple

   a dredging bucket with hinges like the shell of a clam

   type of:

   vessel

   an object used as a container (especially for liquids)
2. noun

   the quantity contained in a pail
   synonyms: pailful

   type of:

   containerful

   the quantity that a container will hold