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carful

carful

1 8.2
A load of things that fills a car
  • noun
translation icon : carga de coche
  • A carful of excited children rushed out to see the parade.

Examples

  • It's a carful.

  • Someone like all the other girls who picked you up after band practice, or who drove a carful of you and your hysterically giggling friends to the mall, sitting up front alone like a poker-faced chauffeur in a pea jacket.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • They poured a little rum into their cans of Coke, cruising from one end of town to the other, calling out the window at a carful of passing teenage girls, revving the engine at the stoplights.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • The Afghanistan Museum is open to the public on Saturdays and to private groups by appointment, and on a Friday in late January, Bucherer is busily wrapping up an interview with a Swiss newspaper while dealing with a carful of wooden furniture that an Afghan donor dropped off that morning.

    Academic text (2002)
  • We managed to fit a carful of camping gear into the trunk.

  • After the game, a carful of fans cheered as they drove down the street.

Synonyms

carload
vscarful
9 2.9

A large number of people or things that fill a car

is the quantity that fills a small personal vehicle
vanload
vscarful
1 3.4

An amount of goods that fills a van

is the quantity for a small personal vehicle rather than a delivery one
truckful
vscarful
  • US
1 2.7

An amount that fills a truck

is the amount for a small personal vehicle instead of a heavy load carrier
wagonload
vscarful
  • Informal
1 4.5

A very large amount, like enough to fill a wagon

is a regular full quantity for a small personal vehicle, not very large
cartful
vscarful
1 3.0

A full load that fills a cart

is the amount for a small personal vehicle not for a pushed load carrier
wagonful
vscarful
3.1

An amount that fills a wagon

is the amount for a small personal vehicle rather than a farm carrier
containerful
vscarful
3.7

The amount that fills a container

is the amount specific to a small personal vehicle rather than any container

How Full

truckload
  • US
45 2.9
carful
1 8.2
boxful
1 1.9
handful
81 1.0

Surface Forms

carful singular
carfuls plural

Morphology

carful = car (transparent) = car + ful

Formed from 'car' + the productive quantity/amount suffix '-ful' meaning 'an amount that fills a car', which is directly inferable from the parts.

Etymology

Carful is made of car and -ful, where car is a vehicle and -ful means 'full of', the same idea you see in handful or cupful. So a carful is the amount of things that fills a car.