shoulderful

English

Etymology 1

shoulder +‎ -ful

Noun

shoulderful (plural shoulderfuls or shouldersful)

1. As much as can be carried on one's shoulder.
   • 1998, Brandweek - Volume 39, Issues 9-17:

     As he walks down the hall to meet a group of businessmen, this corporate secret service uses code ling and the phones' two-way radio feature to head off potential snafus, such as toilet paper trailing from his wing tips and "snow on the mountains" (a shoulderful of dandruff), while he's unaware in a Mr. Magoo sort of way of the action surrounding him.

   • 2008, Hester Browne, The Little Lady Agency in the Big Apple, page 214:

     Before I could give him a brisk lecture about how making an effort for an hour could help his career no end, a large man with two shouldersful of bags hoved into view.

   • 2015, David Margolis, Change Partners:

     He could get a shoulderful of one-by-sixes off the lumber pile and carry them up to the cabin site.

   • 2018, Steven Barnes, Streetlethal:

     She hefted two small packages, sighed with disgust, and shifted the lot in her arms, finding room for another shoulderful.

2. As much as can be worn on the shoulder.
   • 1989, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, Crisis, page 12:

     With a shoulderful of medals, he returns home after nine years, ready to put down his guns and find some kind of normalcy.

   • 2012, Frances Osborne, Park Lane:

     Don't travel on it then, she was told in the boarding house, or you'll find yourself jammed in, breathing shoulderfuls of damp tweed.

3. An amount that reaches as high as the shoulder.
   • 1939, New Catholic World - Volume 148, page 416:

     Sacramento River flowing circuitously below high crimson banks and a splendid view of America's only volcano (whose last eruption occurred as recently as 1914), rising steeply out of the level valley and hoisting a shoulderful of superb colors against the sky.

4. As much as a metaphoric shoulder can handle.
   • 1958, Stewart Sterling, Dead to the World, page 52:

     Gent who was with her had a shoulderful of chips, for no apparent reason.

   • 2001, Bart Wheeler, Barn-Like Rome, page 142:

     The new regime allowed for an incredible latitude of flexibility but also an equal shoulderful of additional responsibility.

Etymology 2

shoulder +‎ -ful

Adjective

shoulderful (comparative more shoulderful, superlative most shoulderful)

1. (not comparable) Filled as far as the shoulder (of a container)
2. Having large, muscular shoulders.
   • 1930, Lucy Lockwood Hazard, In Search of America, page 572:

     Small, dogged, shoulderful, they come headed America-ward.

   • 2016, Daniel Jose Older, Midnight Taxi Tango:

     Golden brown shoulders bulge out of that sleeveless shirt in a way that's almost profane, like just sitting there, being all burly and shoulderful in front of a group of teenagers seems somehow inappropriate.