Dictionary

stickful en · NOUN

Etymology

From stick + -ful.

Meanings

1. (dated) As much type as fills a composing stick.
   • Stickful after stickful is placed on this galley, until it also is full. 1980, John Southward, Practical Printing: A Handbook to the Art of Typography, page 82:
   • Football stories may be divided into three general classes: the brief summary story of a stickful or a trifle more; the usual football story of a half column or less; and the long story that may be run through a column or more, depending upon the importance of the game. 2009, Phillip J. Morledge, Getting the Scoop:
   • That first morning it took me half an hour to set my first stickful, a dozen lines. 1970, Hal Borland, Country editor's boy, page 55:
2. An amount that is held on one stick.
   • If you scoop a stickful up and then tap the stick smartly on the edge of the pot, most of it will fall off the stick. 1985, Ian J. Kirby, Woodworking - Volume 1, page 59:
   • I started with old headman and passed a good smoking hot stickful of meat to everyone, about twenty or twenty-five of them altogether in the order what I guessed their ages was. 1965, John Conrad Bushman, Scope/reading: guide 1, page 138:
   • Frank stuck a dollop onto the end of his stick and pushed it into the gap that surrounded Bob. “Ooooh.”, Bob cried, “That tickles!” Stickful after stickful, Frank went about his work, whistling as he did so. 2018, Simon J Stephens, Frank the Ferret’s (secret) Four Counties Adventure:
   • And Elsie the Elk looked as if she had mange, and the candy floss had gone up to eighty-five pence for a mean little stickful, and the bus ride was rotten because the driver wouldn't let them open the windows all the way, or sing at all loudly. 2001, Anne Fine, Crummy Mummy and Me:

Forms