mineful

English

Etymology

mine +‎ -ful

Noun

mineful (plural minefuls)

1. An amount sufficient to fill a mine.
   • 1920, Harry A. Frank, Roaming through the West Indies, Blue Ribbon Books, unnumbered page:

     The Americans abandoned what had become a more than useless concession, and to-day a mineful of water, colored with copper sulphates and lapping undetermined streaks of ore, remains the property of the Virgin of Cobre.

2. (figuratively) A large amount, particularly of something obtained through mining.
   • 1892, Horace Smith, “My Boating Song”, in Interludes: Being Two Essays, a Story, and Some Verses, Macmillan and Co, page 117:

     Oh this earth is a mineful of treasure,
     A goblet, that's full to the brim,

   • 1990, Judith Rossner, His Little Women, Pocket Books, published 1991, →ISBN, page 185:

     I had taken all this with a mineful of salt and had not been calling Violet more often.

   • 2008, James Lear, The Secret Tunnel, Cleis Press, →ISBN, page 44:

     Next came a glittering cloud, all wisps and sparkles, which eventually revealed itself to be Miss Daisy Athensasy in a swansdown-trimmed gown and a mineful of diamonds.

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:mineful.

Anagrams

• fulmine