Dictionary

alleyful en · NOUN

Etymology

From alley + -ful.

Meanings

1. The amount that fills an alley.
   • Well, tonight the kids are operating on a ghost-to-ghost hookup . . . going all out for tricks or treats, and we suppose it is best to put up with this mild form of blackmail and come across. At least we get to see the spooks, goblins and witches which are roaming the city and that in itself is usually a treat for the victim. Personally, we would rather shudder at the porchful of assorted “characters” than shout at the alleysful of property wreckers. 1948 October 30, Ed[ward] Mulligan, “Mulligan’s Stew: A weekly summary of Views and News of Mason County Merchants”, in The Ludington Daily News, volume 58, number 305, Ludington, Mich., →OCLC, page five, column 5:
   • The demolitions involved in cutting more than a quarter of a mile of new street through alleyfuls of old houses, not counting frontage changes in the Churchyard itself, took place between the west edge of the future Cannon Street Station site and Old Change. 1972, Priscilla Metcalf, “The Forties: Daguerreotype Panorama”, in Victorian London, London: Cassell, →ISBN, page 24:
   • In central districts like Muski and Bab al-Shaʿriyya the density is 300,000 per square mile, a figure that soars in some back streets to a crushing 700,000. By and large these numbers throng not tower blocks but alleyfuls of low-rise tenements that differ little from the housing stock of, say, a thousand years ago. 1998, Max Rodenbeck, “Beginnings”, in Cairo: The City Victorious, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 16:

Forms