"bit bucket" meaning in English

See bit bucket in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kɪt/ [Received-Pronunciation], /-kət/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kət/ [General-American], /-kɪt/ [General-American] Audio: En-au-bit bucket.ogg [Australia] Forms: bit buckets [plural]
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. Etymology templates: {{glossary|noun}} noun, {{compound|en|bit|bucket|t1=small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit}} bit (“small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit”) + bucket, {{glossary|verb}} verb Head templates: {{en-noun}} bit bucket (plural bit buckets)
  1. (historical) 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; a chad box. Tags: historical
    Sense id: en-bit_bucket-en-noun-afw89rAk Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 44 36 20
  2. (by extension, humorous, slang) The supposed place where bits (binary digits) go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation; the notional resting place of lost or missing digital information. Tags: broadly, humorous, slang Synonyms: black hole, byte bucket, memory hole, bitbucket, bit-bucket Derived forms: great bit bucket in the sky Related terms: /dev/null, write-only memory Translations (supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation): 比特垃圾桶 (bǐtèlājītǒng) (Chinese Mandarin), forgesujo (Esperanto), ビットバケツ (Japanese)
    Sense id: en-bit_bucket-en-noun-CaBg8Iu9 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 44 36 20 Disambiguation of 'supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation': 7 93

Verb

IPA: /ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kɪt/ [Received-Pronunciation], /-kət/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kət/ [General-American], /-kɪt/ [General-American] Audio: En-au-bit bucket.ogg [Australia] Forms: bit buckets [present, singular, third-person], bit bucketing [participle, present], bit bucketed [participle, past], bit bucketed [past]
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. Etymology templates: {{glossary|noun}} noun, {{compound|en|bit|bucket|t1=small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit}} bit (“small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit”) + bucket, {{glossary|verb}} verb Head templates: {{en-verb}} bit bucket (third-person singular simple present bit buckets, present participle bit bucketing, simple past and past participle bit bucketed)
  1. (transitive, computing, humorous, slang) To delete. Tags: humorous, slang, transitive Categories (topical): Computing, Computing
    Sense id: en-bit_bucket-en-verb-pGDezKSo Disambiguation of Computing: 19 18 63 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 44 36 20 Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for bit bucket meaning in English (13.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "noun"
      },
      "expansion": "noun",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bit",
        "3": "bucket",
        "t1": "small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit"
      },
      "expansion": "bit (“small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit”) + bucket",
      "name": "compound"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "verb"
      },
      "expansion": "verb",
      "name": "glossary"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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).\nThe verb is derived from the noun.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bit buckets",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bit bucket (plural bit buckets)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "bit"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "44 36 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1964, Donald I. Cutler, chapter 6, in Introduction to Computer Programming, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, →OCLC, footnote 1, page 108",
          "text": "The lost bits fall into a container called a bit bucket. They are emptied periodically and the collected bits are used for confetti at weddings, parties, and other festive occasions.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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; a chad box."
      ],
      "id": "en-bit_bucket-en-noun-afw89rAk",
      "links": [
        [
          "container",
          "container"
        ],
        [
          "holding",
          "hold#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "chad",
          "chad#English"
        ],
        [
          "small",
          "small"
        ],
        [
          "punched-out",
          "punch out"
        ],
        [
          "pieces",
          "piece#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "paper",
          "paper#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "paper tape",
          "paper tape"
        ],
        [
          "punch card",
          "punch card"
        ],
        [
          "used",
          "use#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "teleprinter",
          "teleprinter"
        ],
        [
          "computer",
          "computer"
        ],
        [
          "machines",
          "machine#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "chad box",
          "chad box"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(historical) 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; a chad box."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "historical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "44 36 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "great bit bucket in the sky"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "[1972], Fully Encoded, 9046 × N, Random Access Write-Only-Memory: Final Specification (Signetics; 25120), [Sunnyvale, Calif.]: Signetics, archived from the original on 2012-03-16, page 1, column 1",
          "text": "Applications [...] Overflow register (bit bucket)\nA humorous datasheet for a non-existent product.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983 May 23, Steve Rosenthal, “Glossary: Rosenthal’s ABCs”, in Maggie Canon, editor, InfoWorld: The Newsweekly for Microcomputer Users, volume 5, number 21, Framingham, Mass.: Popular Computing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 77, column 1",
          "text": "bit bucket – the term for a routine or circuit that accepts binary signals and produces no output. Bit buckets are used for testing and to stand in for routines or circuits that have not been implemented at that particular point.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1985 July 9, Erik Sandberg-Diment, “Personal computing: Parity: An elegantly simple approach to errors”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-02-27, section C, page 4",
          "text": "Inside the computer, every time a byte moves from one component to another the hardware performs a parity check by counting the number of ones. [...] But let's say a power surge or some other line noise is picked up by the computer and the byte is scrambled. [...] The errant byte, having failed the parity test, is unceremoniously dumped into the bit bucket, the computer's wastepaper basket.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990 February 17, W. Paul Blase, “No harmless hacker he”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-11-23",
          "text": "Fortunately, \"RTM\" [Robert Tappan Morris] was not out to deliberately cause damage. What would have happened if he had been? Millions of dollars in time and research data gone into the bit-bucket?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Joan C. Horvath, “Spacecraft Autonomy Issues: Present and Future”, in Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, volume 49, number 6, London: British Interplanetary Society, published 1996, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-02, page 218, column 1",
          "text": "An alternative is for the automated spacecraft to assume that tracking is always available and to have the spacecraft take its data and return it accepting that some fraction of the time communication will in fact not be available. Science data would then go into the \"bit bucket.\" Since current spacecraft are complex and expensive, the latter solution is rarely used (intentionally!) today.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Scott Mann, Ellen L. Mitchell, “Packet Filtering with ipchains”, in Linux System Security: An Administrator’s Guide to Open Source Security Tools (Prentice Hall Series in Computer Networking and Distributed Systems), 2nd edition, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall PTR, page 438",
          "text": "When a packet arrives, the first thing that is done is a cyclic redundancy check [...]. If the CRC does not match the one carried in the frame, then the packet is destroyed (sent to the \"Bit Bucket\" in Figure 16.1).",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Mark Schubin, “A Digital Primer, Schubin-style”, in John Rice, Brian McKernan, editors, Creating Digital Content: Video Production for Web, Broadcast, and Cinema, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, →DOI, page 21",
          "text": "In [John] Watkinson's view, all recording should be done in non-specific \"bit buckets,\" with a computer figuring out what got recorded where and when.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Frank O’Brien, “The AGC Hardware”, in John Mason, editor, The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation (Springer–Praxis Books in Space Exploration), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; Chichester, West Sussex: Praxis Publishing, page 45",
          "text": "Shifting the contents of the register one bit to the right places a zero in the leftmost bit location and discards the rightmost bit. Conversely, a left-shift pads the rightmost bit with a zero and the upper, leftmost bit falls off into the \"bit bucket\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The supposed place where bits (binary digits) go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation; the notional resting place of lost or missing digital information."
      ],
      "id": "en-bit_bucket-en-noun-CaBg8Iu9",
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "supposed",
          "supposed#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "place",
          "place#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "bits",
          "bit#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "binary digit",
          "binary digit"
        ],
        [
          "fall off",
          "fall off"
        ],
        [
          "end",
          "end#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "register",
          "register#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "shift",
          "shift"
        ],
        [
          "operation",
          "operation"
        ],
        [
          "notional",
          "notional"
        ],
        [
          "resting place",
          "resting place"
        ],
        [
          "lost",
          "lost#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "missing",
          "missing#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "digital",
          "digital"
        ],
        [
          "information",
          "information"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, humorous, slang) The supposed place where bits (binary digits) go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation; the notional resting place of lost or missing digital information."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "/dev/null"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "write-only memory"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "black hole"
        },
        {
          "word": "byte bucket"
        },
        {
          "word": "memory hole"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "bitbucket"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "word": "bit-bucket"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "humorous",
        "slang"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "7 93",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "bǐtèlājītǒng",
          "sense": "supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation",
          "word": "比特垃圾桶"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "7 93",
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation",
          "word": "forgesujo"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "7 93",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "sense": "supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation",
          "word": "ビットバケツ"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-kət/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kət/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-kɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-bit bucket.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ef/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bit bucket"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "noun"
      },
      "expansion": "noun",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bit",
        "3": "bucket",
        "t1": "small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit"
      },
      "expansion": "bit (“small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit”) + bucket",
      "name": "compound"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "verb"
      },
      "expansion": "verb",
      "name": "glossary"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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).\nThe verb is derived from the noun.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bit buckets",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bit bucketing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bit bucketed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bit bucketed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bit bucket (third-person singular simple present bit buckets, present participle bit bucketing, simple past and past participle bit bucketed)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "bit"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [
            "Technology",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "44 36 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "19 18 63",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [
            "Technology",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1970, 1970 WESCON Technical Papers: Western Electronic Show and Convention: Papers Presented at the Western Electronic Show and Convention in Los Angeles, California, August 25–28, 1970, Los Angeles, Calif.: WESCON, →OCLC, page [unknown], column 1",
          "text": "This DSC receives all inputs and performs all computations in synchronization with the online computer; however, the DSC outputs are \"bit bucketed.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, Lou Grinzo, Software Development, volume 4, San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 30, column 1",
          "text": "When the program is pressed into heavier duty it simply can't hold the entire list in memory, so someone else has to \"open up the code\" and perform major, instead of minor, surgery. This only increases the chances that the program will be bitbucketed rather than updated.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997 September 30, Matthew N. Dodd, “Anti-spam e-mail addresses”, in comp.os.vms (Usenet)",
          "text": "I think the only good form of email address munging is a plussed email address as I have in this message. While I am not automatically bitbucketing email addressed in this way, it does keep it from hitting my inbox and demanding my immediate attention.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To delete."
      ],
      "id": "en-bit_bucket-en-verb-pGDezKSo",
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "delete",
          "delete#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, computing, humorous, slang) To delete."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "slang",
        "transitive"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-kət/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kət/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-kɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-bit bucket.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ef/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bit bucket"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs",
    "en:Computing"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "great bit bucket in the sky"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "noun"
      },
      "expansion": "noun",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bit",
        "3": "bucket",
        "t1": "small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit"
      },
      "expansion": "bit (“small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit”) + bucket",
      "name": "compound"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "verb"
      },
      "expansion": "verb",
      "name": "glossary"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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).\nThe verb is derived from the noun.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bit buckets",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bit bucket (plural bit buckets)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "bit"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "/dev/null"
    },
    {
      "word": "write-only memory"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with historical senses",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1964, Donald I. Cutler, chapter 6, in Introduction to Computer Programming, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, →OCLC, footnote 1, page 108",
          "text": "The lost bits fall into a container called a bit bucket. They are emptied periodically and the collected bits are used for confetti at weddings, parties, and other festive occasions.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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; a chad box."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "container",
          "container"
        ],
        [
          "holding",
          "hold#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "chad",
          "chad#English"
        ],
        [
          "small",
          "small"
        ],
        [
          "punched-out",
          "punch out"
        ],
        [
          "pieces",
          "piece#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "paper",
          "paper#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "paper tape",
          "paper tape"
        ],
        [
          "punch card",
          "punch card"
        ],
        [
          "used",
          "use#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "teleprinter",
          "teleprinter"
        ],
        [
          "computer",
          "computer"
        ],
        [
          "machines",
          "machine#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "chad box",
          "chad box"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(historical) 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; a chad box."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "historical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English humorous terms",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "[1972], Fully Encoded, 9046 × N, Random Access Write-Only-Memory: Final Specification (Signetics; 25120), [Sunnyvale, Calif.]: Signetics, archived from the original on 2012-03-16, page 1, column 1",
          "text": "Applications [...] Overflow register (bit bucket)\nA humorous datasheet for a non-existent product.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983 May 23, Steve Rosenthal, “Glossary: Rosenthal’s ABCs”, in Maggie Canon, editor, InfoWorld: The Newsweekly for Microcomputer Users, volume 5, number 21, Framingham, Mass.: Popular Computing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 77, column 1",
          "text": "bit bucket – the term for a routine or circuit that accepts binary signals and produces no output. Bit buckets are used for testing and to stand in for routines or circuits that have not been implemented at that particular point.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1985 July 9, Erik Sandberg-Diment, “Personal computing: Parity: An elegantly simple approach to errors”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-02-27, section C, page 4",
          "text": "Inside the computer, every time a byte moves from one component to another the hardware performs a parity check by counting the number of ones. [...] But let's say a power surge or some other line noise is picked up by the computer and the byte is scrambled. [...] The errant byte, having failed the parity test, is unceremoniously dumped into the bit bucket, the computer's wastepaper basket.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990 February 17, W. Paul Blase, “No harmless hacker he”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-11-23",
          "text": "Fortunately, \"RTM\" [Robert Tappan Morris] was not out to deliberately cause damage. What would have happened if he had been? Millions of dollars in time and research data gone into the bit-bucket?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1995, Joan C. Horvath, “Spacecraft Autonomy Issues: Present and Future”, in Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, volume 49, number 6, London: British Interplanetary Society, published 1996, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-12-02, page 218, column 1",
          "text": "An alternative is for the automated spacecraft to assume that tracking is always available and to have the spacecraft take its data and return it accepting that some fraction of the time communication will in fact not be available. Science data would then go into the \"bit bucket.\" Since current spacecraft are complex and expensive, the latter solution is rarely used (intentionally!) today.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, Scott Mann, Ellen L. Mitchell, “Packet Filtering with ipchains”, in Linux System Security: An Administrator’s Guide to Open Source Security Tools (Prentice Hall Series in Computer Networking and Distributed Systems), 2nd edition, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall PTR, page 438",
          "text": "When a packet arrives, the first thing that is done is a cyclic redundancy check [...]. If the CRC does not match the one carried in the frame, then the packet is destroyed (sent to the \"Bit Bucket\" in Figure 16.1).",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2002, Mark Schubin, “A Digital Primer, Schubin-style”, in John Rice, Brian McKernan, editors, Creating Digital Content: Video Production for Web, Broadcast, and Cinema, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, →DOI, page 21",
          "text": "In [John] Watkinson's view, all recording should be done in non-specific \"bit buckets,\" with a computer figuring out what got recorded where and when.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010, Frank O’Brien, “The AGC Hardware”, in John Mason, editor, The Apollo Guidance Computer: Architecture and Operation (Springer–Praxis Books in Space Exploration), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer; Chichester, West Sussex: Praxis Publishing, page 45",
          "text": "Shifting the contents of the register one bit to the right places a zero in the leftmost bit location and discards the rightmost bit. Conversely, a left-shift pads the rightmost bit with a zero and the upper, leftmost bit falls off into the \"bit bucket\".",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The supposed place where bits (binary digits) go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation; the notional resting place of lost or missing digital information."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "supposed",
          "supposed#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "place",
          "place#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "bits",
          "bit#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "binary digit",
          "binary digit"
        ],
        [
          "fall off",
          "fall off"
        ],
        [
          "end",
          "end#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "register",
          "register#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "shift",
          "shift"
        ],
        [
          "operation",
          "operation"
        ],
        [
          "notional",
          "notional"
        ],
        [
          "resting place",
          "resting place"
        ],
        [
          "lost",
          "lost#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "missing",
          "missing#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "digital",
          "digital"
        ],
        [
          "information",
          "information"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(by extension, humorous, slang) The supposed place where bits (binary digits) go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation; the notional resting place of lost or missing digital information."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "black hole"
        },
        {
          "word": "byte bucket"
        },
        {
          "word": "memory hole"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "humorous",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-kət/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kət/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-kɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-bit bucket.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ef/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "bitbucket"
    },
    {
      "word": "bit-bucket"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "bǐtèlājītǒng",
      "sense": "supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation",
      "word": "比特垃圾桶"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation",
      "word": "forgesujo"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "sense": "supposed place where bits go when they fall off the end of a register during a shift operation",
      "word": "ビットバケツ"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bit bucket"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs",
    "en:Computing"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "noun"
      },
      "expansion": "noun",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bit",
        "3": "bucket",
        "t1": "small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit"
      },
      "expansion": "bit (“small amount of something; smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit”) + bucket",
      "name": "compound"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "verb"
      },
      "expansion": "verb",
      "name": "glossary"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "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).\nThe verb is derived from the noun.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bit buckets",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bit bucketing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bit bucketed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bit bucketed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bit bucket (third-person singular simple present bit buckets, present participle bit bucketing, simple past and past participle bit bucketed)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "bit"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English humorous terms",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "en:Computing"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1970, 1970 WESCON Technical Papers: Western Electronic Show and Convention: Papers Presented at the Western Electronic Show and Convention in Los Angeles, California, August 25–28, 1970, Los Angeles, Calif.: WESCON, →OCLC, page [unknown], column 1",
          "text": "This DSC receives all inputs and performs all computations in synchronization with the online computer; however, the DSC outputs are \"bit bucketed.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1996, Lou Grinzo, Software Development, volume 4, San Francisco, Calif.: Miller Freeman, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 30, column 1",
          "text": "When the program is pressed into heavier duty it simply can't hold the entire list in memory, so someone else has to \"open up the code\" and perform major, instead of minor, surgery. This only increases the chances that the program will be bitbucketed rather than updated.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997 September 30, Matthew N. Dodd, “Anti-spam e-mail addresses”, in comp.os.vms (Usenet)",
          "text": "I think the only good form of email address munging is a plussed email address as I have in this message. While I am not automatically bitbucketing email addressed in this way, it does keep it from hitting my inbox and demanding my immediate attention.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To delete."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "humorous",
          "humorous"
        ],
        [
          "delete",
          "delete#Verb"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, computing, humorous, slang) To delete."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "humorous",
        "slang",
        "transitive"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-kət/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbɪt ˌbʌ.kət/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/-kɪt/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-bit bucket.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ef/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/En-au-bit_bucket.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bit bucket"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.