hearthful

plural hearthfuls · plural hearthsful

1. The amount a fireplace can hold.

   They sawed and hacked and somehow managed to acquire hearthfuls of fuel to see them through.

   1996, John B. Keane, More Irish Stories for Christmas, →ISBN, page 43

   1 more example

   All furnaces were built with two sumps, wells or forehearths in which the molten aluminum accumulated, one hearthful or about two metric tons at a time.

   1947, Transactions of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers, Volume 171

2. A quantity (of something) contained within a fireplace.

   Give me refuge, o hearthsful of fire

   1987, Michael C. Hillmann, Furūgh Farrukhzād, A lonely woman: Forugh Farrokhzad and her poetry, page 103

   4 more examples

   Another bard, Rhys Goch Eryri, between the years 1385 and 1448, describes the dragon's colour as similar to a hearthful of fire in a smithy, a significant comparison for such a fire is not composed of lambent flames, but of a golden-red glow.

   1969, Francis Jones, The Princes and principality of Wales, page 175

   Shortly before Thanksgiving, oil prices and expectations rising apace, I had accumulated a healthy hearthful of ashes which I painstakingly distributed on my lawn.

   1980, Vermont Life - Volumes 35-36, page 61

   I hugged the fat, ceiling-high contraption — I would have preferred a hearthful of roaring fire, but I was here, where rooms are heated by stoves — then set to kneading some warmth back into my cheeks and palms.

   2000, Susan Sontag, In America: a novel, →ISBN, page 3

   A hearthful of flames flung warmth into this room, cheerily bouncing their glow off polished walnut furniture and silver-gilt.

   2007, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Lady of the Sorrows, →ISBN

3. A quantity (of something) sitting on a hearth outside a fireplace.

   Of the company, one was on the ground insensible; another was in a yet more deplorable condition; another was nodding over a hearthful of battered pots, pieces of pipes, and oozings of ale.

   2018, George Borrow, The Welsh and Their Literature, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   famished after a baconless dinner and a snack of cold weak tea and heavy bread, miserably shod, and with nothing to look forward to in the evening but a hearthful of wet clothes steaming before an inadequate wood fire, source of light as well as heat.

   1967, Seumas O'Sullivan, The Dublin Magazine - Volume 21, page 25

   And if gunning over an intelligent handsome setter enriches my sport, certainly a hearthful of them on a winter evening or speckled faces peering out of our station wagon are things to value.

   1971, George Bird Evans, The upland shooting life, page 213

4. A homeful; enough to fill a cosy domestic situation.

   I did not leave you when I was young and how can I quit now that we are the parents of a hearthful of children?

   1963, Llazar Siliqi, Albanian contemporary prose, page 162

   3 more examples

   Again he begins to weave his spell around Antonia, whispering in her ear that it was foolish of her to have given father and lover the pledge she has; so huge a sacrifice is not to be expected of one with her talent, her beauty, her charm; what can domestic felicity, even with a hearthful of brats thrown in, weigh in the scales against the applause of the adoring multitude?

   1954, Ernest Newman, More opera nights, page 420

   And to whoever came there, to a house that was much too small to hold its contents, the result of moving from bigger dwellings, there was always a hearthful of homely welcome, with no humbug, whenever he or she entered, and the offer of a meal too almost before they sat, except to the immediate neighbours, who were as much at home there as ourselves.

   1961, David John Williams, The Old Farmhouse, page 47

   If you want your wife to respect you for your work, you can demonstrate your respect for her work by heaping on her a hearthful of appreciation.

   1998, Joey O'Connor -, Women Are Always Right and Men Are Never Wrong, →ISBN

comparative more hearthful · superlative most hearthful

1. Characterized by warmth, comfort, and a sense of belonging; cosy.

   The spot in Hillsdale County chosen by Mr. Jones was sightly and hearthful, watered by the St. Joseph River, and thickly wooded.

   2003, Ralph Monroe Powers, Benaiah Jones III, American Frontiersman, page 56

   3 more examples

   Thus for some people in settings such as squats and the street, lower on the physical continuum than the others, their experiences may be hearthful: the psychological, social and symbolical constituents of home.

   1995, Jeanne Moore, The faces of homelessness in London, →ISBN, page 265

   When we work with leaders and coworkers, the principles are not very different, but the focus is on using all their talents and obtaining joy of work and proficiency, hearthful relationships at the working place, and the expierience of creating real value to the community.

   2009, Søren Ventegodt, Joav Merrick, Health and Happiness from Meaningful Work

   What was a hearthful life? I turned to my day and knew that part of what was lost to me was joy and fun. Food still came to mind. What was comforting and hearthful I thought.

   2009, Joanna Devrais, Hearthstories: A Modern Woman's Quest for the Essential Self, →ISBN, page 16