pewful

Noun

pewful (plural pewfuls or pewsful)

1. An amount sufficient to fill a pew.
   • (On these two pewsful you will not wonder at me refraining from looking a second time.) Around and beneath sat many an aged, many an experienced saint, to give edification to whom seemed less becoming than to receive it from them; many a friend in whose converse I had delighted; many a companion of...1850, Thomas P[orteous] Callender, Memoir of the Late Rev. Thomas P. Callender, Missionary to Jamaica. With a Selection from His Pulpit Discourses., Edinburgh: William Oliphant and Sons; London...
   • At St. Ann’s, Soho, Canon Gregory was preaching for the schools, and I saw no decorations; but the fact was I had lost my bearings, and furtively opened a door which brought me suddenly face to face with whole pewsful of people; so I beat a quicker retreat than even from a suspicious pew-opener or...1871 December 25, “Christmastide at the Churches”, in The Daily Telegraph, number 5,159, London, page 2