winterful en · NOUN · etymology 1
Etymology
From winter + -ful.
Meanings
-
A quantity that lasts or is produced during a winter.
After a winterful of Germans, the Italians seemed gay, cheerful, and hard-working, though their war losses were bitter.
1955, Marie Di Mario Wann, Dependent baggage; Destination Germany, page 121:He will find that if he goes to New York a week or so in the spring he may see the six or eight plays of the season which have been good enough to last that long, and that he may thus spare himself the suffering of attending a winterful of flops.
1985, Rob Wagner, Anthony Slide, The Best of Rob Wagner's Script, page 39:“Maybe it's just a little snow and not a whole winterful,” suggested Alice, as she climbed out of bed to look.
1926, Clara Ingram Judson, Mary Jane's winter sports, page 14:Darkness everywhere, a whole winterful of it at his back.
2006, Helen Dunmore, House of orphans, page 41:Every spring my mother would throw open the house like a cellar door, and a whole winterful of dust balls, grocery bills, and horehound drops would come rolling out to linger on the hollyhocks awhile and be caught at last in the handfuls of slick cottonwood fuzz that tumbled slowly eastward out of town.
1959, Robert Hutchinson, “The Pear Tree”, in Southwest Review, volume 44, page 99:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| winterfuls | Number=Plur | lexicographic | |
| wintersful | Number=Plur | lexicographic |