coatful

Noun

coatful (plural coatfuls or coatsful)

1. The amount that a coat can hold.
   • And here we walk in the house with two coatfuls and armfuls of these bulbs.1981, Michael Jackson, Jessica Jackson, Bruce Jackson, Your father's not coming home any more, page 53
   • Instead of using the coat to batter the threat away, he used its length and bulk like a huge net. He cast it out, scooping coatfuls of the fluttering horde out of the air.2013, James Rollins, Rebecca Cantrell, Innocent Blood, →ISBN
2. A quantity that is contained within a coat.
   • A coatful of wind is called an admiral.1930, Life - Volume 96, page 8
   • Two Negro women were being held after a patrolman on downtown duty watched them unload coatsful of items into a parked Cadillac.1970 January 19, George Whittington, “Under Eyes of Police: Burglars, Shoplifters Have Hard Time Over Weekend”, in The Clarion-Ledger, volume CXXX, number 249, Jackson, Miss., page 1
3. A quantity that sits on a coat.
   • And when Franz Liszt sat down at the piano, sporting shoulder-length hair and a coatful of glittering medals, the ladies threw their jewels onto the stage, battled over his gloves and even his cigar butts, and of course swooned.1977, Charles Veley, Catching up, page 149
   • With this coatful of painful weapons, it is not surprising that a porcupine has few enemies.1987, Laima Dingwall, Porcupines, →ISBN, page 23