armsful

1. pluralplural of armful

plural armsfuls

1. alternativeAlternative form of armful.

   Naomi Levine made a movie wherein little kids swatted each other with armsfuls of huge white flowers.

   1992, Film Culture, New York, N.Y.: Film Culture, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 23

   5 more examples

   They may know that they were in God’s hand from eternity, and out of God’s hand they were put as a compliment into Chriſt’s hand, if I may ſo expreſs it; and indeed he is infinitely well-pleaſed with the compliment; he takes an armsful of them, as it were, out of God’s everlaſting arms; and he hugs them in his boſom; for his delights were with the ſons of men; and whenever he ſees the travail of his ſoul, he is ſatisfied: and when he hath hugged them in his redeeming arms, till he hath juſtified, ſanctified, and completely ſaved them, then he will give them back to the Father’s hand again, preſenting them blameleſs to him, ſaying, “Behold I, and the children which thou haſt given me.” There muſt then be a gathering of the people to him, becauſe there was a giving of the people to him.

   1795, The Sermons, and Other Practical Works, Of the Late Reverend and Learned Mr. Ralph Erskine, Minister of the Gospel in Dunfermline., volume IV, Falkirk: Mair, Patrick, page 137

   The Swiss were falling fast before the bristling wall of iron, when Arnold of Winkelried, in Unterwalden, grasping an armsful of the projecting spears, buried them in his body, and sank with them to the earth; through the breach thus made his companions burst, and the Austrian host was almost annihilated, Leopold himself being in the number of the slain.

   1872, “William Tell and Switzerland.”, in Chambers’s Supplementary Reader, number 5, London and Edinburgh: William and Robert Chambers, page 15

   To grow it [a Maréchal Niel rose] in all its magnificence it must be planted out in a greenhouse or conservatory, and the branches be allowed to grow to their fullest extent. It is then that armsfuls of splendid golden blooms are produced and their great loveliness is fully displayed.

   1878–9, Theo S. Case, editor, Kansas City Review of Science and Industry, volume II, Kansas City, Missouri: Press of Ramsey, Millett & Hudson, Agriculture and Horticulture.: Marechal Niel Rose., page 186

   As it is customary with the Indians to accompany their word with a present proportioned to the affair treated of, he gave them fifty pounds of powder, as many balls, six guns, ten axes, twelve armsfuls of tobacco and a hatchet pipe.

   1901, Thomas Hughes, “Chapter III. French Explorers—Le Sueur and His Copper Discovery—Indian Wars.”, in History of Blue Earth County and Biographies of Its Leading Citizens, Chicago: Middle West Publishing Company, page 23

   When Vernon came in from work, he always brought me wildflowers he had found, an armsful of tiger lilies, bluebells, and white daisies.

   1986 December, Adele Sarkissian, editor, Something About the Author (Studies in Austrian Literature, Culture, and Thought; Autobiography Series; 1), Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., →ISBN, page 66