acreful

English

Etymology

From acre +‎ -ful.

Noun

acreful (plural acrefuls or acresful)

1. As much as an acre produces or uses.
   • 1944, Arnold Gingrich, Coronet - Volume 16, page 40:

     The California sun was doing what the Chamber of Commerce says it always does; bees were buzzing; larks were bugling; orange marigolds were blooming by the acreful.

   • 1963, Agronomy Abstracts, page 15:

     As pressures grow for increased Industrial, recreational and urban use of water, agriculture will have to justify every acreful of water it uses.

   • 1988, Mother Mary Francis, Come Alive, page 16:

     It does not cry for proof, what even one burning spark can accomplish in acrefuls of stubble.

   • 2010, Eric Chevillard, Palafox, page 98:

     ...three insectivorous fledgelings, who no sooner have they swallowed a mosquito whole are they clamoring for the whole swarm, who no sooner have they swallowed a worm than are they clamoring for an acreful, reminding us not a little already in certain respects of our Palafox, their presumptive father.

2. An unspecified but very large amount.
   • 1980, Louis T. Renz, The history of the Northern Pacific Railroad, page 206:

     Also the grant brought troubles by the acreful.

   • 1990, Janis Susan May, The avenging maid, page 23:

     Flowers were all very well and good in their place, growing in the wild, or even a few in a vase on a lady's boudoir table, but when they took over the hall in acresful, it was too much.

Anagrams

• careful