Definitions for handful
ˈhænd fʊlhand·ful

Princeton's WordNet(5.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

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(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. handfulnoun

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

   Etymology: [AS. handfull.]

Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

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.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Handfulnoun

   as much as the hand will grasp or contain

   Etymology: [AS. handfull.]

2. Handfulnoun

   a hand's breadth; four inches

   Etymology: [AS. handfull.]

3. Handfulnoun

   a small quantity

   Etymology: [AS. handfull.]

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

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

How to pronounce handful?

1. Alex

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

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. Thomas Edison:

   There are only a handful of inventions in history that have changed the way everyone lives on a daily basis, the light bulb changed everything.

2. The United:

   We have stories about firms leaving China, but that was happening before tariffs were applied because Chinese labor and land costs have been rising. Now we have more stories but no documentation that' many' firms are leaving, given the huge number of foreign firms operating in China. And we certainly don't have evidence that a large number of firms are returning production to The US, i think it's untrue to say that companies are leaving China, though it's possible that a handful may have done. What has been happening on a significant scale is that many firms have been moving, or plan to move, some of their supply chain operations out of China to avoid tariffs, and or to go to places where they sense greater political and policy stability.

3. Cutter James:

   At any one time, there’s maybe a handful of ships that are out there in the Eastern Pacific.

4. John Buttolph:

   I felt I had to take what was a handful of seed corn and plant it and nurture and grow another crop or cycle of Mrs. Winner’s.

5. Daniel Field:

   Today, birds are the most diverse and globally widespread group of terrestrial vertebrate animals -- there are nearly 11,000 living species, only a handful of ancestral bird lineages succeeded in surviving the mass extinction event 66 million years ago, and all of today's amazing living bird diversity can be traced to these ancient survivors.

Images & Illustrations of handful

Popularity rank by frequency of use