"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) Sings 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

{
  "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 negative polarity items",
          "parents": [
            "Negative polarity items",
            "Terms by semantic function"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Finnish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with French translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Sings very badly."
      ],
      "id": "en-can't_carry_a_tune_in_a_bucket-en-verb-rR~Vdwh8",
      "links": [
        [
          "Sings",
          "sing"
        ],
        [
          "badly",
          "badly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, slang) Sings 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 idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English negative polarity items",
        "English slang",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Terms with Finnish translations",
        "Terms with French translations",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Sings very badly."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Sings",
          "sing"
        ],
        [
          "badly",
          "badly"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, slang) Sings 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"
}

Download raw JSONL data for can't carry a tune in a bucket meaning in English (1.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). 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.