"can't carry a tune in a bucket" meaning in English

See can't carry a tune in a bucket in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: can't carry a tune in a bucket [present, singular, third-person], couldn't carry a tune in a bucket [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|can't<can't,-,couldn't,-> carry a tune in a bucket}} can't carry a tune in a bucket (third-person singular simple present can't carry a tune in a bucket, no present participle, simple past couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, no past participle)
  1. (idiomatic, slang) To sing very badly. Tags: idiomatic, no-past-participle, no-present-participle, slang Related terms: carry a tune, couldn't carry a note in a bucket, tin ear Translations (Translations): laulaa kuin varis (Finnish), chanter comme une casserole (French)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for can't carry a tune in a bucket meaning in English (1.9kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "can't carry a tune in a bucket",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "couldn't carry a tune in a bucket",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "can't<can't,-,couldn't,-> carry a tune in a bucket"
      },
      "expansion": "can't carry a tune in a bucket (third-person singular simple present can't carry a tune in a bucket, no present participle, simple past couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, no past participle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English negative polarity items",
          "parents": [
            "Negative polarity items",
            "Terms by semantic function"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To sing very badly."
      ],
      "id": "en-can't_carry_a_tune_in_a_bucket-en-verb-q9IHn0vA",
      "links": [
        [
          "sing",
          "sing"
        ],
        [
          "badly",
          "badly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, slang) To sing very badly."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "carry a tune"
        },
        {
          "word": "couldn't carry a note in a bucket"
        },
        {
          "word": "tin ear"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "no-past-participle",
        "no-present-participle",
        "slang"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "laulaa kuin varis"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "chanter comme une casserole"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "can't carry a tune in a bucket"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "can't carry a tune in a bucket",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "couldn't carry a tune in a bucket",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "can't<can't,-,couldn't,-> carry a tune in a bucket"
      },
      "expansion": "can't carry a tune in a bucket (third-person singular simple present can't carry a tune in a bucket, no present participle, simple past couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, no past participle)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "carry a tune"
    },
    {
      "word": "couldn't carry a note in a bucket"
    },
    {
      "word": "tin ear"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English negative polarity items",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English verbs",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To sing very badly."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sing",
          "sing"
        ],
        [
          "badly",
          "badly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, slang) To sing very badly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "no-past-participle",
        "no-present-participle",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "laulaa kuin varis"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "chanter comme une casserole"
    }
  ],
  "word": "can't carry a tune in a 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.