jailful
jailful noun: enough to fill a jail.
Noun
jailful (plural jailfuls or jailsful)
- Enough to fill a jail.
- The news of his approach struck terror into the hearts of the negroes, who immediately stopped preparing to massacre the whites, and in a few hours the only traces that could be found of the insurrection were several jailfuls of “ringleaders” arrested on suspicion, and swampfuls of followers who...1875 August 26, “The Week”, in The Nation: A Weekly Journal Devoted to Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume XXI, New York, N.Y.: E. L. Godkin & Co., page 125
- On the contrary, I served the civil government as loyally as I knew how, and broke down in health from working overtime, trying to properly dispose of overcrowded jailsful before people awaiting trial died.1906, James Henderson Blount, Philippine Independence as a National Issue in 1908: An Address Delivered Before the General Assembly of Georgia, August 13, 1906, the Franklin-Turner Company, page 17
Forms of jailful
| plural | jailfuls |
|---|---|
| plural | jailsful |
| alternative form | gaolful |
Origin of jailful
From jail + -ful.
Questions about jailful
- What does jailful mean?
- Jailful means enough to fill a jail.
- What part of speech is jailful?
- Jailful is a noun.
- What is the plural of jailful?
- The plural of jailful is jailfuls.
Words near jailful in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jailful (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: “jailful.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jailful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.