bucket shop
- noun
- Archaic
:
bar de mala muerte
- In the 19th century, patrons would gather at the local bucket shop to drink cheap whiskey and socialize.
Due to his youthful appearance and the size of his beds, he quickly found himself banned from every bucket shop in Boston.
- Due to his youthful appearance and the size of his beds, he quickly found himself banned from every bucket shop in Boston.
Examples
-
The old bucket shop was known for its low prices but served the worst liquor in the city.
-
Many stories circulated about the shady deals made in the dim, crowded bucket shop near the docks.
-
Due to his youthful appearance and the size of his beds, he quickly found himself banned from every bucket shop in Boston.
How Seedy
Surface Forms
Morphology
bucket + shop
The phrase 'bucket shop' is specialized financial jargon whose meaning ('a dishonest or unregulated brokerage') cannot be derived from the literal senses of 'bucket' and 'shop' (a container and a retail outlet). An average B1 learner who knows both words would likely interpret it as a shop that sells buckets, so the idiomatic, historical financial sense is unpredictable and opaque without prior exposure.
Etymology
Bucket shop comes from old bars that sold very cheap liquor by the bucket, not by the glass. The strong image of people buying bad drink from a dirty shop made the name mean 'a cheap, disreputable saloon'.