full

comparative fuller · comparative more full · superlative fullest · superlative most full

1. Containing the maximum possible amount that can fit in the space available.

   The jugs were full to the point of overflowing.

   Synonyms: abounding, brimful, bursting, chock-a-block, chock-full, full up, full to bursting, full to overflowing

2. Complete; with nothing omitted.

   Our book gives full treatment to the subject of angling.

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   Anybody can cure a curable disease if he happens to have the right drug at hand, but the treatment of a condition for which there is no positive cure makes much greater demands on the doctor, who has to be practical pharmacologist, human being, psychiatrist, and father confessor—he has, in fact, to be a proper physician in the fullest sense of the word.

   1976 March 27, F. Dudley Hart, “History of the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis”, in British Medical Journal, volume 1, number 6012, →DOI, →JSTOR, page 763

   Virologist V. S. Kalyanaraman allegedly ordered the discarding of cultures of an AIDS-related virus isolated by French scientists. Some claim he wanted to substitute his own culture to insure fuller credit for the CDC in the event of a breakthrough.

   1986 February 15, Elizabeth Pincus, “The CDC: When Politics & Egos Hamper Saving Lives”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 39, page 2

   Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.[…]A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.

   2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist

   1. category theorySurjective as a map of morphisms
   2. category theoryIncluding all morphisms. Formally: Such that for every pairs of objects (X, Y) in S, the hom-sets operatorname Hom_S(X,Y) and operatorname Hom_C(X,Y) are equal.
3. Total, entire.

   She had tattoos the full length of her arms. He was prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

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   'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: entire, total

4. Completely empowered, authorized or qualified (in some role); not limited.

   full member

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   full officer

5. informalHaving eaten to satisfaction, having a "full" stomach; replete.

   "I'm full," he said, pushing back from the table.

6. informalReplete, abounding with.

   I prefer my pizzas full of toppings.

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   This movie doesn't make sense; it's full of plot holes.

7. in pluralinformalCarrying as much as possible.

   Hang on - my hands are full; just let me put these down.

8. Plump, round.

   full lips; a full face; a full figure

9. Having its entire face illuminated.

   For on those evenings, when the moon is full and bright and clear, mothers and fathers in Siam tell their children to look up at the moon and then ask them what they see there.

   1969, Alan S. Feinstein, Folk tales from Siam, page 82

10. Of a size that is ample, wide, or having ample folds or pleats to be comfortable.

    a full pleated skirt; She needed her full clothing during her pregnancy.

11. Having depth and body; rich.

    a full singing voice

12. obsoleteHaving the mind filled with ideas; stocked with knowledge; stored with information.

    Reading maketh a full man.

    1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Studies”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

13. Having the attention, thoughts, etc., absorbed in any matter, and the feelings more or less excited by it.

    She's full of her latest project.

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    Everyone is now full of the miracles done by cold baths on decayed and weak constitutions.

    1693, [John Locke], “§7”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC

    Synonyms: glutted, gorged, sated, satiate, satiated, satisfied, stuffed

14. Filled with emotions.

    The heart is so full that a drop overfills it.

    1848, James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal

15. obsoleteImpregnated; made pregnant.

    Ilia, the fair, […] full of Mars.

    1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

16. postpositionalcard gamesSaid of the three cards of the same rank in a full house.

    nines full of aces

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    I'll beat him with my kings full!

17. AustraliaDrunk, intoxicated.

    Mr. Coniff: That is the only evidence you gave of his being intoxicated, that his hat was on the side? […] Mr. Coniff: That is the only indication you gave the committee when you were asked if the judge was full, that his hat was on the side of his head; is that right?

    1925, United States House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee No. 1, Charges Against William E. Baker, U.S. District Judge

    Synonyms: drunk

1. archaicnot comparableFully; quite; very; thoroughly; completely; exactly; entirely.

   […] full in the centre of the sacred wood

   1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

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   Prospero: I have done nothing but in care of thee, Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who Art ignorant of what thou art; naught knowing Of whence I am, nor that I am more better Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, And thy no greater father.

   1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

   You know full well what makes me look so pale.

   1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act IV, scene I, verse 112

   This cupboard[…] this other one, His true wife's charge, full oft to their abode Yielded for daily bread the martyr's stone,

   1880, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, William Blake, lines 9–12

   It is full strange to him who hears and feels, When wandering there in some deserted street, The booming and the jar of ponderous wheels,[…]

   1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, section IX

   I turned my head, and as I lay gasping in the throes of that awful struggle I could see that Leo was off the rock now, for the lamplight fell full upon him.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

plural fulls

1. Utmost measure or extent; highest state or degree; the state, position, or moment of fullness; fill.

   I was fed to the full.

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   The swan's-down feather, That stands upon the swell at full of tide.

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

   Sicilian tortures and the brazen bull, Are emblems, rather than express the full Of what he feels.

   1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Third Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC

   […] he had tasted their food, and found it so palatable that he had eaten his full before he knew it.

   1911, Berthold Auerbach, Bayard Taylor, The villa on the Rhine

   Early next morning we were over at the elk carcass, and, as we expected, found that the bear had eaten his full at it during the night.

   2008, Jay Cassell, The Gigantic Book Of Hunting Stories

   When he had eaten his full, they set to work again.

   2010, C. E. Morgan, All the Living: A Novel

2. The phase of the moon when its entire face is illuminated, full moon.

   a. 1656, Joseph Hall, Josiah Pratt (editor), Works, Volume VII: Practical Works, Revised edition, 1808 page 219, This earthly moon, the Church, hath her fulls and wanings, and sometimes her eclipses, while the shadow of this sinful mass hides her beauty from the world.

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   It is like, that the brain of man waxeth moister and fuller upon the full of the moon: …

   a. 1622, Francis Bacon, Natural History, in The works of Francis Bacon, 1765, page 322

3. gymnasticsA flip involving a complete turn in midair.
4. freestyle skiingAn aerialist maneuver consisting of a backflip in conjunction and simultaneous with a complete twist.

present singular third person fulls · participle present fulling · participle past fulled · past fulled

1. To become full or wholly illuminated.

   "The moon fulls to-night, don't it?"

   1918, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 29, in The Story Of Waitstill Baxter

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   The September moon fulls on the 20th at 24 minutes past midnight, and is called the harvest moon.

   1888 September 20, “The Harvest Moon”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 Apr 2013

   "By the black cave of Atropos, when the moon fulls, keep thy tryst!"

   1905, Annie Fellows Johnston, chapter 4, in The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation

present singular third person fulls · participle present fulling · participle past fulled · past fulled

1. transitiveTo baptise.

   And thy diſciples fulleden men in thy name, in forgiueneſſe of her ſinnes.

   1610 October, John Foxe, “An Old Ancient Writing Intituled, The Praier and Complaint of the Ploughman”, in Actes and Monuments of Matters Most Speciall and Memorable, Happening in the Church, with an Vniuersall Historie of the Same. […], 6th edition, volume I, London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for the Company of Stationers, →OCLC, book V, page 373, column 2

present singular third person fulls · participle present fulling · participle past fulled · past fulled

1. To make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing; to waulk or walk.

   Synonyms: tuck, walk, waulk

plural Fulls

1. A surname from German.