Dictionary

footful en · NOUN

Etymology

From foot + -ful.

Meanings

1. An amount that can be picked up by one foot.
   • Often he would draw back one huge handful (or footful) of viney soil, only to leave it there while he looked and listened. 2013, Stephen J. Bodio, Field and Forest: Classic Hunting Stories, →ISBN, page 44:
   • Why should the owl treat the cuckoo thus? I have not the faintest idea. But she does, and once she clutched a footful of lavender feathers. 1964, David Stephen, Scottish Wild Life, page 52:
   • Mrs. Terrapin, having selected a place to her liking, moistens the hard clay, then alternately with the sharp claws of her hind feet, begins scraping out a hole about two inches across, lifting the moist earth, footful after footful. 1929, Forestry Kaimin, page 20:
2. A quantity (of something) that covers the foot.
   • “Poor Elizabeth,” he had teased gently, “smiling politely at all your admirers in the ballroom and secretly nursing two feetful of blisters." 2016, Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter, →ISBN:
   • I slowed to a safer speed to avoid plunging into one of the tidepools and receiving a footful of spines. 1996, Greg Bills, Fearful Symmetry, →ISBN, page 138:
   • I well remember, in school on a winter's day, looking up and observing some boy or girl, with painful grimaces, surreptitiously caressing a footful of empurpled chilblains. 1973, David Morrison, Essays on Fionn MacColla, page 12:
3. The amount of pressure that can be exerted by pressing with one foot.
   • A footful of brake pressure can slam the front wheel down with enough force to jam it right through the baggage 1981, Richard L. Taylor, Fair-weather Flying, page 222:
   • A fast getaway with a real footful of throttle causes fierce wheelspin and decided judder from the rear axle, ... 1965, Country Life - Volume 137, page 1226:
   • You need footfuls of brake, differential power, everything you've got. 1967 December, James Gilbert, “The Beagle B. 206-S.”, in Flying Magazine, volume 81, number 6, page 37:
4. A complete set of toes for one foot.
   • Although he claims that he 'couldn't conceive of trying to evade the draft in any way', that is exactly what he did, deliberately seeking out an anti-war doctor and demonstrating to him that he was two toes short of a footful, the result of a teenage argument with a lawnmower. 2011, John Collis, John Denver: Mother Nature's Son, →ISBN:
   • Huge feet, gray with grime, and big fat toes: a footful of thumbs drumming the pavement. 1993, Marvin Kaye, Witches & Warlocks, →ISBN, page 401:
   • Then I lifted out my leg with a fine footful of toes 1959, Homes and Gardens - Volume 40, page 33:
   • Mabob dashed after it and, before the whompem hit the ground, Mabob had sunk a footful of talons into its spine. 1991, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine - Volume 15, page 143:
5. (humorous) A small number, about five.
   • You will undoubtedly have a handful (or footful!) of questions along the way. 2011, Dr. Craig Richards, Thomas Hollowell, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Barefoot Running, →ISBN:
   • They were rock stars at a time when rock stars were supposed to wear silly clothes. The public just looked on, and up, in admiration. Only a handful, or perhaps a footful, of other rockers have come as close to Elton as being identified with a shoe of their own. 1999, Josh Sims, Mal Peachey, Rock Fashion, page 159:
   • One of the feetful of marathons that are a study of efficiency, Berlin also boasts supportive crowds and tremendous excitement. 1998, Dennis Craythorn, Rich Hanna, The Ultimate Guide to International Marathons, →ISBN, page 194:
6. (humorous) As much as one can handle, especially of something handled with one's feet.
   • Virtually every work of Brahms boasts a footful of pedals. 1999, Bruce Adolphe, Of Mozart, Parrots and Cherry Blossoms in the Wind, →ISBN:
   • Adding power and turning with the rudder is an option, but some precision is sacrificed. The takeoff roll in the -6 is a bit of a handful (footful?). 1996, Sport Aviation - Volume 45, page 34:
   • 'Ah've just about had a bellyful of you.' 'An' Ah've had a footful of you, friend.' 1966, William McIlvanney, Remedy is none, page 168:

Forms