Word.ws English Dictionary

carful

carful noun: as much as a car will hold. (Usually with reference to an automobile; sometimes with reference to a railroad car, especially in 19th-century texts.).

Noun

carful (plural carfuls or carsful)

  1. As much as a car will hold. (Usually with reference to an automobile; sometimes with reference to a railroad car, especially in 19th-century texts.)
    • Tourists were arriving by the carful.

Forms of carful

pluralcarfuls
pluralcarsful

Origin of carful

From Middle English carful (“cartful”), equivalent to car + -ful. Shift in meaning follows that of "cart" to modern senses of car. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Koareful (“a cartful”), West Frisian karfol (“a cartful”), German Karrevoll (“a cartful”).

Questions about carful

What does carful mean?
Carful means as much as a car will hold. (Usually with reference to an automobile; sometimes with reference to a railroad car, especially in 19th-century texts.).
What part of speech is carful?
Carful is a noun.
What is the plural of carful?
The plural of carful is carfuls.

Words near carful in the dictionary

  1. carfour
  2. carfours
  3. Carfrae
  4. carfree
  5. carfs
  6. carful
  7. carfuls
  8. carga
  9. cargador
  10. cargadors
  11. Cargan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: carful (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.

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