Colloquial Variant guide

bit bucket

noun · verb · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kɪt/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /-kət/
  • General-American: /ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kət/
  • General-American: /-kɪt/
  • Australia: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A container for holding chad (“small punched-out pieces of paper”) from paper tape or punch cards used with teleprinters, early computers, and other machines.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: historical

Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: chad box

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

An imaginary domain that accepts lost, discarded, or useless digital data that does not reach its intended destination, such as data lost in transmission or due to errors; the notional resting place of lost or missing digital information.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly, humorous, slang

Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: black hole, byte bucket, great bit bucket in the sky, memory hole

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To delete.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: humorous, slang, transitive

Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

The noun is derived from bit (“small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit”) + bucket. Bit in this context originally referred to small pieces of paper punched out from paper tape or punch cards (see sense 1), but came to be regarded as the unit of data storage (sense 2). The verb is derived from the noun.

Across languages

Translations

5 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Polish: pojemnik do przechowywania odpadów po dziurkowaniu — container for holding chad from paper tape or punch cards
  • Chinese Mandarin: 比特垃圾桶 (bǐtèlājītǒng) — supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation
  • Esperanto: forgesujo — supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation
  • Japanese: ビットバケツ — supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation
  • Polish: komputerowy śmietnik — supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation