cradlefuls

Noun

cradleful (plural cradlefuls or cradlesful)

1. A number of babies that lies in a cradle.
   • It seems she churns the butter with one foot and rocks a cradleful of twins with the other; with her hands she knits socks for her husband; on her knee rests a book from which she is improving her mind.1930, John Robertson Dunlap, Arthur Van Vlissingen, John Michael Carmody, Factory and Industrial Management - Volume 79, page 279
2. A quantity of mined earth that is washed at one time in a cradle.
   • What, haven't you heard? it is your friend Jem! he has got a slice of luck, bought a hole of a stranger, saw the stuff glitter, so offered him thirty pounds he was green and snapped at it; and if Jem didn't wash four ounces out the first cradleful I'm a Dutchman.1856, Charles Reade, It Is Never Too Late to Mend
3. A quantity of something that is newly born or created.
   • ...so we shall justify the argument of Mr. Dooley, who said, in reviewing "The Jungle," that he could not see how it was any less a crime to cut off a young tomato in its prime, or to murder a whole cradleful of baby peas in the pod!1934, Upton Sinclair, The Book of Life, page 146