legful

English

Etymology

leg +‎ -ful

Noun

legful (plural legfuls)

1. As much as goes on or in a leg.
   • 1949, John Gould, And One to Grow on: Recollections of a Maine Boyhood, page 208:

     It's the things you get besides the smelts— the spring moon over the spruces, the rush of the snow-water through the sets, the sudden excruciating breathlessness when you go in over your boots and have a legful of that same water.

   • 2011, Louis de Bernières, The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman, page 313:

     But Josef's snake was in a state of such rage and pain that it vengefully administered a legful of lethal anaesthetic.

   • 2014, Jimmy Dean, Oesophageal Cancer - My Story, page 17:

     ECG, legful of blood taken, can't be much left, X rays and a doctor that was fantastic; laid it all out so I could understand it.

   • 2016, Andy Betz, The Lady in Red Quilt:

     As they passed, I stopped, leaned over, straight legged, to slowly smooth my hosiery from ankle to thigh. I gave them an eyeful (and most of my legful).

2. As much as can be moved by a leg.
   • 2008, Forrest Gander, As a Friend, page 73:

     In the corner of the door jamb, the spider flings legfuls of web over the moth, spinning it around like a chunk of wood on a lathe.

   • 2013, Bernd Heinrich, The Hot-Blooded Insects: Strategies and Mechanisms of Thermoregulation:

     The male rolls while the female, who has met the male at the dung pile, rides on his ball. down legfuls of dung to feed from later or to fashion into brood balls that serve as food for their larvae.