Definitions for handful
ˈhænd fʊlhand·ful

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:5.0 / 2 votes

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

GCIDERate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. handfulnoun

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

WiktionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

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 DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Handfulnoun

   Etymology: hand and full.

   1. As much as the hand can gripe or contain.

   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.

   2. A palm; a hand’s breadth; four inches.

   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.

   3. A small number or quantity.

   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.

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

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 DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

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 GazetteerRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. handful

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

Matched Categories

1. • Containerful
   • Small Indefinite Quantity

British National Corpus

1. Nouns Frequency

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

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

1. 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How to pronounce handful?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say handful in sign language?

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. Alexa Henning:

   The governor has said she will sign laws that focus on protecting and educating our kids, not indoctrinating them and believes our schools are no place for the radical left’s woke agenda, arkansas isn’t going to rewrite the rules of biology just to please a handful of far-left advocates.

2. Ernie Ortiz:

   Investors are valuing the industry based on the worst they're hearing from only a handful of companies, because they don't have a benchmark price to base analysis around.

3. Michael Tran:

   There are only a handful of pipelines available to export barrels out of Canada and when a large pipeline like Keystone goes offline, Canadian barrels become stranded and prices suffer.

4. Chuck Hagel:

   No one can [lead the fight] because the White House, according to his three predecessors, centers all of the decision making among a handful of people in the White House who have only one thing in common: that they don't know anything about the military.

5. Alison Trenk:

   Validating their emotions is important because young relationships can be incredibly emotionally charged, they're trying on dating with only a handful of years of life experience.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=handful
2. ^ GCIDE
   https://gcide.gnu.org.ua/?q=handful
3. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Handful
4. ^ Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
   https://johnsonsdictionaryonline.com/views/search.php?term=handful
5. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
6. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/handful
7. ^ Military Dictionary and Gazetteer
   https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/59563/pg59563-images.html
8. ^ Usage in printed sources
   https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=handful