Bit-Bucket
1. n. A motional bottomless hole into which vital messages and files
fall when some network machine accidentally destroys them. A useful excuse
for anything one has forgotten to send ("Oh, it must have fallen into the
bit-bucket. I'll send it again.") or did not feel like answering at the
time ("Send it to me again...").
2. n. A similar place, in a processing
unit, for unwanted information. Here, in hardware, the bit bucket collects
all the leftover intermediate products of a calculation for disposal. In
large high-performance machines, a "byte-bucket" or a "word bucket" must be
used because the bit-bucket cannot be emptied quickly enough.
-- IBM Jargon and General Computing Dictionary, Ninth Ed.