footful

English

Etymology

foot +‎ -ful

Noun

footful (plural footfuls or feetful)

1. An amount that can be picked up by one foot.
   • 1929, Forestry Kaimin, page 20:

     Mrs. Terrapin, having selected a place to her liking, moistens the hard clay, then alternately with the sharp claws of her hind feet, begins scraping out a hole about two inches across, lifting the moist earth, footful after footful.

   • 1964, David Stephen, Scottish Wild Life, page 52:

     Why should the owl treat the cuckoo thus? I have not the faintest idea. But she does, and once she clutched a footful of lavender feathers.

   • 2013, Stephen J. Bodio, Field and Forest: Classic Hunting Stories, →ISBN, page 44:

     Often he would draw back one huge handful (or footful) of viney soil, only to leave it there while he looked and listened.

2. A quantity (of something) that covers the foot.
   • 1973, David Morrison, Essays on Fionn MacColla, page 12:

     I well remember, in school on a winter's day, looking up and observing some boy or girl, with painful grimaces, surreptitiously caressing a footful of empurpled chilblains.

   • 1996, Greg Bills, Fearful Symmetry, →ISBN, page 138:

     I slowed to a safer speed to avoid plunging into one of the tidepools and receiving a footful of spines.

   • 2016, Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter, →ISBN:

     “Poor Elizabeth,” he had teased gently, “smiling politely at all your admirers in the ballroom and secretly nursing two feetful of blisters."

3. The amount of pressure that can be exerted by pressing with one foot.
   • 1965, Country Life - Volume 137, page 1226:

     A fast getaway with a real footful of throttle causes fierce wheelspin and decided judder from the rear axle, ...

   • 1967 December, James Gilbert, “The Beagle B. 206-S.”, in Flying Magazine, volume 81, number 6, page 37:

     You need footfuls of brake, differential power, everything you've got.

   • 1981, Richard L. Taylor, Fair-weather Flying, page 222:

     A footful of brake pressure can slam the front wheel down with enough force to jam it right through the baggage

4. A complete set of toes for one foot.
   • 1959, Homes and Gardens - Volume 40, page 33:

     Then I lifted out my leg with a fine footful of toes

   • 1991, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine - Volume 15, page 143:

     Mabob dashed after it and, before the whompem hit the ground, Mabob had sunk a footful of talons into its spine.

   • 1993, Marvin Kaye, Witches & Warlocks, →ISBN, page 401:

     Huge feet, gray with grime, and big fat toes: a footful of thumbs drumming the pavement.

   • 2011, John Collis, John Denver: Mother Nature's Son, →ISBN:

     Although he claims that he 'couldn't conceive of trying to evade the draft in any way', that is exactly what he did, deliberately seeking out an anti-war doctor and demonstrating to him that he was two toes short of a footful, the result of a teenage argument with a lawnmower.

5. (humorous) A small number, about five.
   • 1998, Dennis Craythorn, Rich Hanna, The Ultimate Guide to International Marathons, →ISBN, page 194:

     One of the feetful of marathons that are a study of efficiency, Berlin also boasts supportive crowds and tremendous excitement.

   • 1999, Josh Sims, Mal Peachey, Rock Fashion, page 159:

     They were rock stars at a time when rock stars were supposed to wear silly clothes. The public just looked on, and up, in admiration. Only a handful, or perhaps a footful, of other rockers have come as close to Elton as being identified with a shoe of their own.

   • 2011, Dr. Craig Richards, Thomas Hollowell, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Barefoot Running, →ISBN:

     You will undoubtedly have a handful (or footful!) of questions along the way.

6. (humorous) As much as one can handle, especially of something handled with one's feet.
   • 1966, William McIlvanney, Remedy is none, page 168:

     'Ah've just about had a bellyful of you.' 'An' Ah've had a footful of you, friend.'

   • 1996, Sport Aviation - Volume 45, page 34:

     Adding power and turning with the rudder is an option, but some precision is sacrificed. The takeoff roll in the -6 is a bit of a handful (footful?).

   • 1999, Bruce Adolphe, Of Mozart, Parrots and Cherry Blossoms in the Wind, →ISBN:

     Virtually every work of Brahms boasts a footful of pedals.