handful of
306
1.6
- noun
- /ˈhændfəl əv/
:
un puñado de
- He picked up a handful of coins from the ground.
- only a handful of
- a handful of people
- a handful of countries
In fact, there's a handful of dates that tell us.
- In fact, there's a handful of dates that tell us.
- I have a handful of very close friends.
- They only really have a handful of translations in their language.
- So I'll just do like a handful of these and give them a wash.
- I still see let's say a handful of crashes every week.
- And he just dumped a handful of Oxycontin on my on my desk.
- And there are a handful of other sucky slash weird things.
- I have gone through a man's phone a handful of times in my life.
Examples
-
I have a handful of very close friends.
-
A handful of their precious young ones have been sent into the world of man.
-
I think I have met a handful of people.
-
And there were like a handful of people present.
-
So I basically stuck to like the same handful of products most days.
-
You could see visually that there were only a handful of unique devices.
-
And I've experienced it only a handful of times to a real top level.
-
And that's far more important than a handful of people in this small town.
-
In fact, there's a handful of dates that tell us.
-
They only really have a handful of translations in their language.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A small number of people or things, more than one but not many
∞
1.0
A small amount of something
81
1.0
An amount you can hold in one hand
21
2.7
A small amount you can hold in a closed hand
18
3.8
A small amount of soft food put on something
1
4.2
An amount you can hold in the palm of one hand
A small amount that can be held in one hand
Antonyms
How Much
Surface Forms
Morphology
handful + of
The meaning 'an amount that can be held in one hand / a small number' follows directly from 'handful' (a small quantity or what fits in one hand) combined with the partitive 'of', so no unexpected idiomatic shift occurs. This is a compositional, literal construction that is common across languages and thus readily understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.
Etymology
Handful of comes from the simple image of filling your hand so it is full, holding as much as it can. Because it shows only what fits in one hand, it now means 'a small number' or 'a small amount'.