brainful

brainful noun: as much as one person can think about or hold in mind at one time.

Noun

brainful (plural brainfuls)

As much as one person can think about or hold in mind at one time.
- A heartful of desire, man's natural load,
  A brainful of belief, the noble's lot,—1868, Robert Browning, The Ring and the Book, volume 2 (verse novel), Count Guido Franceschini, page 81, line 179; republished as The Poetical Works of Robert Browning: Volume VIII. The Ring and the...
- My only hope is that the memory of my real friendship for each one will blot out the recollection of the brainfuls of non-essentials which they were bidden to bear about with them, at least till the day of reckoning.1924, Elementary English - Volumes 1-2, page 249

brainful (comparative more brainful, superlative most brainful)

Characterized by brain activity; cerebral.
- Stephens dubbed him, the Peter the Hermit of the tragic secession that drove to a head the great civil revolution, were of the brainful and dominant Scotch-Irish blood, and exemplified its traits and powers.1892, Scotch-Irish Society of America, The Scotch-Irish in America
- For it must ever be that the unconscious, dutiful, studious man, who ever strives to constantly replenish his mind through study, who follows sincerely the true function of his vocation , has within him the brainful power of obtaining the truest element of future reward.1897, The Railway Surgeon - Volume 3, page 12

I can only usefully hold one brainful of detail at a time, and a thousand-line method contains way more than one brainful.2007, Kent Beck, Implementation Patterns:
His Philosophy in Exile course was a brainful.2014, John Vorhaus, Poole's Paradise:
Always best with a gentleman so brainful.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London:
All this brainful red-pilling and you just trying to throw me off the trail again.2018, Gautam Malkani, Distortion:

From brain + -ful.

What does brainful mean?: Brainful means as much as one person can think about or hold in mind at one time.
How do you use brainful in a sentence?: I can only usefully hold one brainful of detail at a time, and a thousand-line method contains way more than one brainful.
What part of speech is brainful?: Brainful can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of brainful?: The plural of brainful is brainfuls.

Adapted from Wiktionary: brainful (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “brainful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brainful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.