wheelful
English edit
Etymology 1 edit
Adjective edit
wheelful (comparative more wheelful, superlative most wheelful)
- Full of, or bearing, wheels; wheeled.
- 1883, Puck, volume 13, page 199:
- The Wheelman for June has just reached us, and we can only say that it seems to be rolling all around the country, and that it is the most wheelful, as well as the wheeliest periodical we ever saw.
Etymology 2 edit
From wheel + -ful. Compare handful.
Noun edit
wheelful (plural wheelfuls)
- The amount a wheel can hold.
- 1983, Stephen Jay Gould, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes:
- The external boundary is surface enough for communication between the organelles of a single cell with their minuscule volumes. But the surface of a wheel as large as a human foot could not provision the wheelful of organic matter within.
- 2016, Sarah Outen, Dare to Do: Taking on the planet by bike and boat:
- Trucks and cars flew past, slinging wheelfuls of heavy slush at me in brown sideways thumps, and I lived for the bus stops where I could shelter and warm my hands on the tea flask.