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Glite Dictionary
fistful

fistful

21 2.7
A small amount you can hold in a closed hand
  • noun
  • /ˈfɪstfəl/
translation icon : puñado
  • He offered me a fistful of fresh herbs from his garden.

Thank you and thank you for not taking my power when the engine of his mind dragged him to swig fistfuls of Xanax and a bottle or two of booze.

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Examples

  • The child excitedly showed her mother a fistful of colorful rocks she had collected.

  • Sally popped a Sweet Tart into her mouth and held out a fistful to Anna.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • The old woman he had helped off the bus was pushing a fistful of tissues at him.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • When she loses, she doubles and I wind up with a fistful of paper.

    The Big Sleep (1946)

  • I had to gather up a fistful of it and pull it almost half a meter.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Phelps had a fistful of gold medals by 24.

    The King of Staten Island (2020)

  • A man walks into the gallery on a sunny afternoon, carrying a fistful of golf clubs.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • For several seconds, the man in the fedora stared at the fistful of bills without expression.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Another child came forward and shoved her harder, grabbing a fistful of her shirt so that she nearly fell.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • Hettie threw a fistful of sand at him and stalked off down the beach.

    Fiction book (1997)

Synonyms

handful
vsfistful
81 1.0

An amount you can hold in one hand

is held specifically in a closed hand
palmful
vsfistful
1 4.2

An amount you can hold in the palm of one hand

is held specifically in a closed hand rather than on the inner part

How Much

pile
426 1.9
handful
81 1.0
fistful
21 2.7

Surface Forms

fistful singular
fistfuls plural

Morphology

fistful = fist (transparent) = fist + ful

A regular suffixation where '-ful' denotes an amount related to the noun 'fist', analogous to 'handful'.

Etymology

Fistful comes from fist (a 'closed hand') plus the ending -ful meaning 'full of', like in the word handful. So a fistful is literally 'as much as a closed hand can hold', which is why it means that small amount.