water butt

water butt (plural water butts)

1. An open-ended barrel used to contain rainwater; a rain barrel
   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 27,

     It would have been better, as it turned out, to have led gently up to this announcement, for Mrs. Micawber, being in a delicate state of health, was overcome by it, and was taken so unwell, that Mr. Micawber was obliged, in great trepidation, to run down to the water-butt in the backyard, and draw a basinful to lave her brow with.

   • 1915, D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow, New York: The Modern Library, Chapter 2, p. 72,

     The house was silent save for the wind outside, and the noisy trickling and splattering of water in the water-butts.

   • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian, Collins, 1998, Chapter 6,

     Trumpkin went to a flat stone about the size of the top of a water-butt, and stamped on it with his foot.

• water-butt