From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpailpail /peɪl/ noun [countable] especially American English 1 DHDLOa metal or wooden container with a handle, used for carrying liquids SYN bucket a milk pailpail of a pail of water2 (also pailful /-fʊl/)DH the amount of liquid a pail will hold
Examples from the Corpus
pail• a pailful of water• A pail lifted, still and brimming - mirror To tempt a first star to a tremor.• Life clangs and swings and scrapes with all these buckets and pails.• At that moment, there came a nearby clatter of mops and pails.• It was a community that drank out of the beer pail and ate out of the lunch bucket.• a diaper pail• Sheet steel is used in applications ranging from pails to car hoods.• There were monthly pails of bloody white rags soaking.• They filled their pail and container, and started the return journey.Origin pail (1300-1400) Probably from Old English pægel, a unit of measurement for liquids 