handful

plural handfuls · plural handsful · alternative archaic handfull

1. The amount that a hand will grasp or contain.

   I put two or three corns in my mouth, liked it, stole a handful, went into my chamber, chewed it, and for two months after never failed taking toll of every pennyworth of oatmeal that came into the house: […]

   1712 July 25 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “MONDAY, July 15, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 431; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 130

   Synonyms: fistful

2. obsoleteA hand's breadth; four inches.

   Knap the tongs together about a handful from the bottom.

   1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC

3. A small number, usually approximately five.

   This handful of men were tied to very hard duty.

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

   3 more examples

   The names of a number of the most famous North American railroads could be found in the north-east; Pennsylvania, New York Central, Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio, and the Norfolk & Western, to name but a handful.

   1985, Rodger Bradley, Amtrak: The US National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Blandford Press, page 92

   You tell me the velocity of a baseball as it leaves Derek Jeter's bat, and I can use the laws of physics to calculate where it will land a handful of seconds later.

   2005 April 8, Brian Greene, “One Hundred Years of Uncertainty”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2021

   Was it deliberate that the first week of October 1961 was chosen to conduct a national survey of passenger usage? Why October of all months, when the holiday season was over and families back at work and at school? Was this a fiddling of the figures to make an unfair case against rail-dependent resorts such as those in the West Country, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, where previously overloaded summer services would now only have a handful of locals on board?

   2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, pages 52–53

4. A group or number of things; a bunch.

   But, aunt, she must have had some kind of education, her accent was so pure, her English so unfaulty. The other girl dropped her h's by handfuls, and made some very wild confusion in her native etymology.

   1866, Emma Jane Worboise, “Ivy Cottage”, in Sir Julian’s Wife, London: Virtue Brothers and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 89–90

5. informalSomething which can only be managed with difficulty.

   Those twins are a real handful to look after.

   2 more examples

   The Southern acquired them because the little Class "B4" 0-4-0 tanks were finding heavy modern rolling stock more and more of a handful, and at war's end the railway had nothing of suitable power but short wheelbase on its books to take their place on the more tortuous of the dock lines.

   1959 February, G. Freeman Allen, “Southampton—Gateway to the Ocean”, in Trains Illustrated, page 91

   Many times dogs are surrendered for reasons such as changes in the family unit, a death in the family, no time to care for a dog, or because that cute little puppy is now a 100 lb untrained handful.

   2008, Dog Fancy, volume 39, number 11, page 76

6. slangA five-year prison sentence.