Word.ws English Dictionary

pailful

pailful noun: the amount that fills, or would fill, a pail.

Noun

pailful (plural pailfuls or pailsful)

  1. The amount that fills, or would fill, a pail.
    • Here's neither buſh, nor ſhrub to beare off any weather at all: and another Storme brewing, I heare it ſing ith' winde: yond ſame blacke cloud, yond huge one, lookes like a foule bumbard that would ſhed his licquor: if it ſhould thunder, as it did before, I know not where to hide my head: yond ſame...1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
    • Some say that instead of a bowl of milk on the table, it was a pailful on the kitchen-floor fresh from the cow.1896, Clifton Johnson, “Snakes”, in What They Say in New England (non-fiction), Boston, Massachusetts, United States: Lee and Shepard Publishers, page 99

Forms of pailful

pluralpailfuls
pluralpailsful
alternative formpaileful
alternative formpailfull

Origin of pailful

From pail + -ful.

Questions about pailful

What does pailful mean?
Pailful means the amount that fills, or would fill, a pail.
What part of speech is pailful?
Pailful is a noun.
What is the plural of pailful?
The plural of pailful is pailfuls.

Words near pailful in the dictionary

  1. Paikhomba
  2. paiks
  3. pail
  4. paila
  5. pailas
  6. pailful
  7. pailfuls
  8. Pailin
  9. pailing
  10. pailings
  11. paillard

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pailful (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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