Meanings
herdful1
comparative more herdful · superlative most herdful
- obsoleteRich in herds (of cattle etc.).
[…] Spoiled of Orgallia's green domain, of wide Tir-Owen's woods, / Of high Tir-Conal's herdful hills and fishy-teeming floods; / Of all the warm vales, rich in goods of glebe-manuring men, / That bask against the morning sun along the Royal Glen.
1872, Samuel Ferguson, Congal: A Poem, in Five Books, Dublin: Edward Ponsonby, page 17
herdful2
- The amount that constitutes a herd.
In addition to decreasing your odds of being the unlucky item on the big cat's menu, being in a herd also means that you can find out about impending danger much sooner than you would if you were alone. After all, a herdful of eyes is better than one measly pair.
2005, Audrey Pavia, Janice Posnikoff, “Understanding Horses from Head to Hoof”, in Horses For Dummies, 2nd edition, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Publishing, →ISBN, page 28
Origin
Cite this entry
herdful. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/herdful
“herdful.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/herdful. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “herdful,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/herdful.
Source: herdful on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.