What does handful mean?

Definitions for handful
ˈhænd fʊlhand·ful

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word handful.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. handful, smatteringnoun

    a small number or amount

    "only a handful of responses were received"

  2. handful, fistfulnoun

    the quantity that can be held in the hand

GCIDE

  1. handfulnoun

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

Wiktionary

  1. handfulnoun

    As much as the hand will grasp or contain. - Joseph Addison

  2. handfulnoun

    A hand's breadth; four inches.

    Knap the tongs together about a handful from the bottom. - Francis Bacon

  3. handfulnoun

    A small quantity, usually approximately equal to five, the number of fingers on a hand.

    This handful of men were tied to very hard duty. - Fuller

  4. handfulnoun

    Something which can only be managed with difficulty.

    Those twins are a real handful to look after.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Handfulnoun

    Etymology: hand and full.

    In the park I saw a country gentleman at the side of Rosamond’s pond, pulling a handful of oats out of his pocket, and gathering the ducks about him. Freeholder, №. 44.

    Take one vessel of silver and another of wood, each full of water, and knap the tongs together about an handful from the bottom, and the sound will be more resounding from the vessel of silver than that of wood. Francis Bacon, Natural History.

    The peaceful scabbard where it dwelt,
    The rancour of its edge had felt;
    For of the lower end two handful
    It had devour’d, it was so manful. Hudibras, p. i.

    Being in possession of the town, they had their handful to defend themselves from firing. Walter Raleigh, Apology.

    He could not, with such a handful of men, and without cannon, propose reasonably to fight a battle. Edward Hyde.

ChatGPT

  1. handful

    A handful generally refers to the amount or number of something that can fit or be held in one hand. It can also be used figuratively to describe a person, task, or situation that is difficult to manage or control.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Handfulnoun

    as much as the hand will grasp or contain

  2. Handfulnoun

    a hand's breadth; four inches

  3. Handfulnoun

    a small quantity

  4. Etymology: [AS. handfull.]

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. handful

    Used figuratively, in a military sense, to denote a comparatively small number; as, “a handful of men.”

British National Corpus

  1. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'handful' in Nouns Frequency: #2326

How to pronounce handful?

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of handful in Chaldean Numerology is: 5

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of handful in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of handful in a Sentence

  1. Ryan Moore:

    It's just tough to have birdie chances that are reasonable on this golf course right now, the greens are so firm and so bouncy. I hit a handful of what I would say are as good of shots as I could possibly hit the last couple days and ended up with 45-footers.

  2. Geraldo Rivera:

    The left is the Democratic Party, we're only talking about a handful of so-called ‘moderates’ who still want trillions in spending. Biden lied about who he was. He was never a moderate. He was there as a Trojan horse, and now the horse has come up lame.

  3. Michael Cassidy:

    Our course will continue to stay the same regardless of 'allegations' made by a handful of violent convicted felons. the quantity and similarity of the complaints is troubling.

  4. Alexander Davis:

    When things are so dark like they are in the deep sea, if you reflect even a handful of photons, something can detect you, and here, these animals are covering their whole [ bodies ] in this ultra-black skin to basically suck up all the light and match the pitch blackness of the deep sea.

  5. Maine Gov. Paul LePage:

    I had to go scream at the top of my lungs about black dealers coming in and doing the things that they're doing to our state, i had to scream about guillotines and those types of things before they were embarrassed into giving us a handful of DEA agents.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

handful#10000#12785#100000

Translations for handful

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"handful." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/handful>.

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    a person who is member of one's class or profession
    A urus
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