A bucket (also called a scoop to qualify shallower designs of tools) is a specialized container attached to a machine, as compared to a bucket adapted for manual use by a human being. It is a bulk material handling component.
The bucket has an inner volume as compared to other types of machine attachments like blades or shovels.
The bucket could be attached to the lifting hook of a crane, at the end of the arm of an excavating machine, to the wires of a dragline excavator, to the arms of a power shovel or a tractor equipped with a backhoe loader or to a loader, or to a dredge.
The name "bucket" may have been coined from buckets used in water wheels, or used in water turbines or in similar-looking devices.