Meanings of dinner bucket in English

A miner with a dinner bucket was coming toward them.

Item: One sandy-haired, gritty-complexioned man, with a drooping ragged mustache, a tin dinner bucket, and lime on his boots.

Each noon, when the dinner buckets were passed around, the two friends sat together.

The men got to their feet slowly, eating up all the time they possibly could stowing their dinner buckets, getting cold drinks, buying candy bars.