Word.ws English Dictionary

handbagful

handbagful noun: as much as a handbag will hold.

Noun

handbagful (plural handbagsful)

  1. As much as a handbag will hold.
    • One morning, when I had been only two years in the service, news came that Mr. Comrie had been found dead in his library, and that about a handbagful of gems was missing.1895 March, Charles Edwardes, “The Comrie Case”, in Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, volume XXXIX, number 3, page 354, column 2
    • Then, Friday morning, Mr. Gumming and I, with three handbagsful, took the early train, prepared to do all honor to the man who was a very great patron of Buddhism and is now reverenced as one of the Shinto deities. […] The first day, there was not very much of a crowd, though we managed to get rid...1915 August, L. C. M. Smythe, “Iyeyasu Sanbyakunen Sai”, in W. C. Smith, editor, The Missionary Survey, volume V, number 8, page 586, column 1

Forms of handbagful

pluralhandbagsful

Origin of handbagful

From handbag + -ful.

Questions about handbagful

What does handbagful mean?
Handbagful means as much as a handbag will hold.
What part of speech is handbagful?
Handbagful is a noun.
What is the plural of handbagful?
The plural of handbagful is handbagsful.

Words near handbagful in the dictionary

  1. handback
  2. handbacks
  3. handbag
  4. handbag clip
  5. handbag house
  6. handbagful
  7. handbagged
  8. handbagger
  9. handbaggers
  10. handbagging
  11. handbaggings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: handbagful (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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