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

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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. Keri Gans:

    A snack can help fuel you, especially during the afternoon slump. A piece of gum won't provide that energy that's needed... that you might get from a piece of string cheese and a piece of fruit, a handful of almonds or a yogurt.

  2. Scott Stricklin:

    When you add in those who are quarantined through contact tracing as a result of those positives in addition to a handful of players on the non-Covid injury list, it gives the Gators less than 50 scholarship players available currently.

  3. Elizabeth Warren:

    ( Trump) announced that only a handful of people had died as a result of the hurricanes and, of course, congratulated President Donald Trump on that.

  4. Josh Tetrick:

    Our goal is to get below five cents per what we call' egg equivalent' in the next handful of years.

  5. President Barack Obama:

    Between and myself and the Bush administration, hundreds of people have been released ... We assume that ... a handful of them are going to be embittered and still engaging in anti-US activities and trying to link up potentially with their old groups, the bottom line is that the strategic gains we make by closing Guantanamo will outweigh, you know, those low-level individuals who, you know, have been released so far.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

handful#10000#12785#100000

Translations for handful

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"handful." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/handful>.

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