pannikinful

plural pannikinfuls · plural pannikinsful

1. The quantity that a pannikin will hold.

   At the bottom is a little hollow, in which is always to be found a few pannikinfuls of beautifully clear, fresh water, which is icy cold.

   1898, William Charles Scully, chapter 13, in Between Sun and Sand: A Tale of an African Desert, London: Methuen, page 190

   3 more examples

   “Never mind,” said Raikes; “sufficient for the day is the evil thereof; therefore let us have a couple of pannikinsful of soup, and trust for better luck to-morrow.”

   1853, John Sherer, chapter 12, in The Gold-Finder of Australia, London: Clarke, Beeton & Co, page 117

   He glanced carelessly at the coin and sipped his tea. “Rotten cheap, isn’t it? Many’s the time I’d have given a pound for a pannikinful. And many’s the cup I’ve got for nothing, too.”

   1918, G. B. Lancaster, “A Nice Girl”, in The Windsor Magazine, Volume 48, June-November 1918, pp. 72-73

   A tall boy of twenty, deeply windburnt, with his clothes in rags, crouched over the fire shovelling a pannikinful of stew into himself at desperate speed […]

   1938 April, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter II, in Homage to Catalonia, London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC