Word.ws English Dictionary

have one's handful

have one's handful is the obsolete form of have one's hands full.

Meaning of have one's hands full

Verb

have one's hands full (third-person singular simple present has one's hands full, present participle having one's hands full, simple past and past participle had one's hands full)

  1. (idiomatic) To be busy or thoroughly preoccupied.
    • He already has his hands full with two kids and a full-time job, yet he still makes time to volunteer.

Forms of have one's handful

third-person singular presenthas one's handful
present participlehaving one's handful
past participlehad one's handful
pasthad one's handful

Questions about have one's handful

What is have one's handful the obsolete form of?
Have one's handful is the obsolete form of have one's hands full.

Words near have one's handful in the dictionary

  1. have one's fingers on the pulse
  2. have one's foot in the door
  3. have one's guard up
  4. have one's hand in the till
  5. have one's hand out
  6. have one's handful
  7. have one's hands full
  8. have one's hands tied
  9. have one's head read
  10. have one's head screwed on
  11. have one's head screwed on right

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have one's handful (page history and authors); have one's hands full (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:

Cite this entry: “have one's handful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/have_one%27s_handful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.