Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The joists to which the flooring is fixed; more properly, the pieces on which the boards of the lower floor are fixed.
  • noun A small wooden vessel with an erect handle formed by continuing one of the staves above the rim.
  • noun A small earthen vessel; a pitcher; also, a shallow vessel provided with a long handle at one side, used as a dipper.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small wooden pail or tub with an upright stave for a handle, -- often used as a dipper.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun dialect A small pail, can or ladle with the handle on the side; a lading-can. In the colonial era, some buckets were made like a small barrel, but with one stave left extra long. This stave would be carved into a handle so the bucket could be used as an oversized scoop. It was used on farms for scattering grain for the chickens, slopping the hogs, as a one-handed milk bucket, and as a grain scoop.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin obscure (possibly Celtic) but dates back at least to the 14th century. Scots; compare Gaelic pigean, diminutive of pigeadh, pige, an earthen jar, pitcher, or pot, Irish pigin, pighead, Welsh piccyn.

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