coatful

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   The amount that a coat can hold.

   • And here we walk in the house with two coatfuls and armfuls of these bulbs.
   • Instead of using the coat to batter the threat away, he used its length and bulk like a huge net. He cast it out, scooping coatfuls of the fluttering horde out of the air.
2. 2

   A quantity that is contained within a coat.

   • A coatful of wind is called an admiral.
   • Two Negro women were being held after a patrolman on downtown duty watched them unload coatsful of items into a parked Cadillac.
   • On the outskirts of town, in streetlight like wet straw flung down, off to the side on the corner, a shivering coatful of woes: a man, hunkered down like a pile of dirt, but winter still steps on his toes
3. 3

   A quantity that sits on a coat.

   • And when Franz Liszt sat down at the piano, sporting shoulder-length hair and a coatful of glittering medals, the ladies threw their jewels onto the stage, battled over his gloves and even his cigar butts, and of course swooned.
   • With this coatful of painful weapons, it is not surprising that a porcupine has few enemies.

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