| 释义 |
ˈbucket-shop
[f. bucket n.1 + shop.
The Leeds Mercury of Dec. 1886 says—‘The market authority in Chicago, called the Board of Trade, would not allow a deal in ‘options’ of less than 5,000 bushels of grain. In order to catch men of small means, what was called the ‘Open Board of Trade’..commenced business in an alley under the regular Board of Trade Rooms. There was an elevator to carry the members of the board to their rooms, and occasionally a member, if trade was slack, would call out, ‘I'll send down and get a bucketful pretty soon,’ referring to the speculators in the ‘Open Board of Trade’ below. Hence the term ‘bucket shop’ came to be applied to all grain gambling institutions.]
1. An unauthorized office used originally for smaller gambling transactions in grain, and subsequently extended to offices for other descriptions of gambling and betting on the markets, the stocks, etc.; † also, a gin-mill, a low-class liquor-shop. orig. and chiefly U.S.
1875Mrs. Stowe We & Neighbors 380 The lowest, the most dreadful of all, was what they called the bucket shops. There the vilest of liquors are mixed in buckets and sold to the wretched, crazed people. 1880Bradstreet's 1 Dec. 1/4 The failure of the ‘Produce Exchanges’, or bucket shops..caused little excitement. 1881N.Y. Even. Post Oct. (Th.), A ‘bucket-shop’ in New York is a low ‘gin-mill’, or ‘distillery’, where small quantities of spirits are dispensed in pitchers and pails (buckets). When the shops for dealing in one-share or five-share lots of stocks were opened, these dispensaries of smaller lots than could be got from regular dealers were at once named ‘bucket-shops’. 1882Standard 28 Dec. 6/5 A system of speculation carried on in grain in what are termed bucket-shops. 1886Statist 28 Aug. 234 The ‘bucket shop’ is an American institution..and it was first used for retail gambling in grain. Ibid. 235 Men opened offices..and started a business in Stocks which was simply betting..The ‘bucket shop’ keeper..offered to deal at close prices and without commission..There are ‘bucket shops’ and ‘bucket shops’. The worst class of them are thimble and pea sharpers under a more polite name. 1886Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 11 Nov. 2/2 A new plan to suppress bucket-shops and restore speculative trading to former channels. 1910N.Y. Even. Post 4 Apr. 4 What..our people call a bucket-shop, is not only a gambling establishment pure and simple but is in most cases a gambling establishment which pretends to be something else. 1957Encycl. Brit. IX. 703/2 ‘Bucket shop’ means the business of a sham share broker who gambles with his customers on the rise or fall in the prices of stock exchange securities without acquiring these securities at all. 1960Times 10 June 7/2 It might be said that he was conducting a bucket-shop..except that his stock in trade was not securities but British Colonial stamps.
2. A retailer of ‘cut-price’ goods, aiming to undercut the market by working outside the official system; spec. one selling cheap airline tickets. Also attrib.
1973Times 17 Nov. 13/1 Latest reports indicate that the introduction of ABCs has virtually driven the ‘bucket shop’ operators from that..scene. 1976Holiday Which? May 59/3 Bucket shops (as well as other travel firms) usually advertise in the small ads of The Times, Time Out, [etc.]. 1980Daily Tel. 4 Dec. 6 The International Air Transport Association is being pressed to allow all air travellers a fair opportunity to buy cheap tickets at ‘bucket shop’ prices. 1981Times 16 Dec. 16/8 One of the worst problems [for motorcycle manufacturers] was the activity of ‘bucket shop’ dealers who undermined the standing of official retailers. 1982Daily Tel. 26 July 2/5 The meeting will seek..co-ordinated airline action to stamp out bucket shop sales of tickets. 1985Times 9 Feb. 13/2 In 1985 the public will wake up and realize that bucket shops are no longer the sole purveyors of discounted tickets. |