| 释义 |
handful, n.|ˈhændfʊl|
[OE. handfull str. fem., plur. handfulla, f. hand + full adj.: cf. ON. handfyllr, Ger. handvoll.
Though composed, like mouthful, of n. and adj., the compound was in OE. and ME. a true n., inflected as a whole; hence its plural is properly handfuls, not handsful.]
1. a. A quantity that fills the hand; as much or many as the hand can grasp or contain.
a700Epinal Gloss. 645 Manticum: handful beouuas [Corpus Gl. beowes]. c1000Lamb. Ps. cxxv[i]. 6 (Bosw.) Berende handfulla heora. c1000ælfric Lev. ii. 2 Nime hira ane handfulle smideman. a1225Ancr. R. 254 An honful ȝerden. 1382Wyclif Gen. xxxvii. 7, I wenede vs to bynden hondfullis in the feelde..and ȝoure hondfullis stondynge al aboute to loute myn hondful. 1378–8T. Usk Test. Love Prol. 112 And glene my handfuls of the shedinge after their handes. c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon iii. 107 Ye ben not worth an hanfull of strawe. 1555Eden Decades 242 The negros or blacke Moores..gaue golde by hole handfuls. 1590Shakes. Mids. N. iv. i. 41, I had rather haue a handfull or two of dried pease. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 794 Others ful of Gold in powder, each containing two handfuls. 1791Cowper Iliad xviii. 690 In frequent handfulls, there, they bound the sheaves. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 53 To throw in salt by handfuls.
b. Through later analysis into n. + adj., the plural has been improperly made handsful.
1480Caxton Chron. Eng. clxi. 144 The noble burgeys..cast oute at hir wyndowes gold and siluer hondes ful. 1563T. Hill Art Garden. (1593) 108 Take three or four handes full of the Straw-berrie leaues. 1664Pepys Diary (1879) III. 1 Of y⊇ flowers of St. John's Wort two Handsfull, of y⊇ Leaves of Plantan, of Alehoofe, of each three handfulls. 1683Pennsylv. Archives I. 64, 20 handsfuls of Wampum. 1770Langhorne Plutarch (1879) II. 727/2 Throwing incense into the fire by handsful. 1863Bates Nat. Amazon ix. (1864) 254 Throwing handsfull of sand and sticks at it.
2. A small company or number; a small quantity or amount. (Usually depreciative.)
1525Ld. Berners Froiss. cccxcix. (R.), Ye se yonder your enemyes, they be but a handefull of men. 1536Rem. Sedition 2 a, The ignorant souldiours were here thus taught, a handful of witte to be moch more worth than a horslode of strengthe. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. iv. i. 149 His Page atother side, that handfull of wit. 1633Earl of Manchester Al Mondo (1636) 148 The longest liver hath but a handfull of dayes. 1748Anson's Voy. iii. x. 414 Conquered about an age since by an handful of Tartars. 1828J. R. Planché Desc. Danube 62 Passing a handful of villages. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. xxiii, Mrs. Crummles herself has played to mere handfuls. 1876Freeman Norm. Conq. V. xxv. 550 They kept their own tongue, borrowing only a handful of words from the British tongue.
†3.
a. A lineal measure of four inches; = hand n. 20. Obs.
c1450Lonelich Grail l. 620 Thorwh the scholdere it [the knife] Cam thore A large handful and wel More. 1547Boorde Introd. Knowl. xxiv. (1870) 185 A cap of sylke..of .iii. handfoll longe. 1600Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 134 A tree..foureteene handfuls about. 1707Sloane Jamaica I. Pref., Raised some few handfuls high. 1731–37J. Tull Horse-hoeing Husb. (1822) 194 A handful high.
†b. spec. used in measuring the height of horses.
1535Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 6 §2 Two mares..of the altitude or height of .xiii. handefulles at the least. 1541–2Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 5 §1 Every horse..to be..in heyght xiiij handfulles, reconynge and accounting to every handfull foure ynches. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 256 In height it was about twenty two handfuls and three fingers. 1676Ibid. No. 1080/4 A bay Gelding 14 handful high.
4. fig. As much as one can manage; an affair or person with which one has one's hands full.
1755Johnson, Handful..4. As much as can be done. 1887M. E. Braddon Like & Unlike i, I can assure you he was a handful even for me. 1891Spectator 17 Jan., The troublesome boy..the boy that is generally described by his attendants as a ‘handful’.
5. slang. A five years' prison sentence.
1930J. Lait Big House i. 6 A five-year sentence is a ‘handful’. 1953M. Gilbert Fear to Tread ix. 118 He's had a two-stretch... He'll collect a handful next time. 1966New Society 31 Mar. 22/2 Going up for a handful (receiving a sentence of five years' imprisonment).
Hence ˈhandful v., to deal out by handfuls.
1625Bp. Hall Serm. Wks. (1837) V. 215 Not sparingly handfulled out to us, but dealt to us by the whole load. |