shirtful

plural shirtfuls · plural shirtsful

1. As much as is within, on, or held by a shirt.

   Cabrini Project kids bail it back with their hands, soak up shirtsful.

   1989, Dennis Schmitz, Eden: poems, page 22

   4 more examples

   I watched him until he disappeared from view, and then thought I would open up the treasure I had buried and deposit some of the shirtful which he had so kindly given me after I had robbed him.

   1892, George T. Ulmer, Adventures and Reminiscences of a Volunteer: A Drummer Boy From Maine

   Calvin lays the shirtful of skunk on the ground and holds it with his foot.

   2002, Wilmoth Foreman, Summer of the Skunks, page 34

   It was not quite enough time to tackle the wood-fired bathtub contraption, but it was plenty enough to motor up a long, winding hill to the north, where almost a year before we'd found hatfuls and shirtfuls of morel mushrooms with Erik's friend Breakfast.

   2013, Ben Hewitt, Saved: How I Quit Worrying about Money and Became the Richest Guy in the World

   Holy Moses, Mr. Reilly, but you had a narrow escape, Devil a man in the barony can handle a cudgel as I can, and it was a miracle, and you may thank his lordship here for it that you hadn't a shirtful of sore bones.

   2018, William Carleton, Willy Reilly, page 196