HANDFUL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Handful

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/hˈændfˌʊl/ Listen

noun

handful n. (pl. handfuls)

As much as the hand will grasp or contain.

A hand's breadth; four inches. (Obs.) "Knap the tongs together about a handful from the bottom."

A small quantity or number. "This handful of men were tied to very hard duty."

A person, task, or situation, which is the most that one can manage; as, my two-year-old is a handful.

To have one's handful, to have one's hands full; to have all one can do. (Obs.) "They had their handful to defend themselves from firing."

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Etymology of 'Handful'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Handful" Quotes from Famous Books

... let down the ashes,—it isn't a bad thing to do with a well-contrived stove,—and set the pan, to which we had a duplicate, into the out-room, for Stephen to carry away. Then into the clean grate went a handful of shavings and pitch-pine kindlings, one or two bits of hard wood, and a sprinkle of small, shiny nut-coal. The draughts were put on, and in five minutes the coals were red. In these five minutes the stove and the mantel ...

— We Girls: A Home Story • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney

... cake, and yet very light; the flavour is most admirable, for the wheat is good and pure, and the bread well kneaded. The way they make this bread is as follows:—From large round panniers filled with wheat they take out a handful at a time, sorting it most carefully and expeditiously, and throwing every defective grain into another basket. This done, the wheat is ground between two circular stones, as it was ground in Egypt 2,000 years ago (see No. 117), the requisite rotary motion being ...

— The Book of Household Management • Mrs. Isabella Beeton

... dealing as this which forced Black Hawk to fight with a handful of warriors for his inheritance. The Government simply made a treaty with the Sacs under Keokuk, and took the land of the Foxes at the same time. There were some chiefs who, after they had feasted well and drunk deep and signed away their country for ...

— The Indian Today - The Past and Future of the First American • Charles A. Eastman

... suddenly overthrew the scales in which they were weighing the precious metal, exclaiming: "Why quarrel for such a trifle? If such is your thirst for gold that for its sake you forsake your own country and come to trouble those of strangers, I will show you a province where you may gather by the handful the object of your desire; but to succeed, you ought to be more numerous than you are, as you will have to contend with powerful kings, who will vigorously defend their dominions. You will first find a cacique who is very rich in gold, who resides at the distance of six ...

— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 8 - The Later Renaissance: From Gutenberg To The Reformation • Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson

... unpleasant. One cannot go on hammering a beaten man and it is difficult to refuse a surrender. On the other hand, it was out of the question to let this fellow go. He had come here prepared to murder me for a paltry watch and a handful of loose change. Common justice and my duty to my fellow men demanded his elimination. Besides, if I let him escape into the open, what would happen? The fields were sprinkled with big flints. It was practically certain that I should never ...

— The Uttermost Farthing - A Savant's Vendetta • R. Austin Freeman

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