Dictionary

fingernailful en · NOUN

Etymology

From fingernail + -ful.

Meanings

1. (rare) Enough to be stored under one's fingernail.
   • He hurried up the back stairs with the hot water, scooping up a fingernailful of frost off the window in the back hall where there wasn't any register. 1952, Meredith Willson, Who did what to Fedalia?, page 27:
   • He said, “A bag of heroin is about two little fingernailsful.[…]” 1971 March 4, Pam Goldstein, “Students: Marijuana ‘Prevalent’ at Eastern”, in The Hartford Courant, volume CXXXIV, number 63, Hartford, Conn., page 50:
   • He scraped up a fingernailful and, holding it to a nostril, slowly inhaled it. He waited for another minute or two for it to take effect, then he scraped up another fingernailful and put it in his mouth and tasted it. 1987, William Diehl, Thai horse, page 307:
   • In the past, I would have eaten nine full-to-the-brim plates of her scrumptious savories — but just fingernailfuls this time. 1988 December 29, Sandra Duveau, “Sneaking foods at holiday buffets”, in The Press-Tribune, page B-5:
   • Clara gave me salts and bath oil and I continued examining the day in fingernailfuls. 1974, Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 167:
   • Timing in the offered fingernailful of cocaine, well cut and loose dropped into the hollow between my collarbones. 2011, Stella Duffy, Singling Out The Couples:

Forms