HANDFUL in a Sentence

Learn HANDFUL from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For HANDFUL, below is one of 382 sentences:
Puzzled by the sudden change in her tone, he mechanically gathered a handful of wood from the basket and tossed it on the fire.

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 Meanings and Examples of HANDFUL
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
handful
 n.  a small number
Classic Sentence: (210 in 15 pages)
1  She untied the knot and a handful of gold coins rolled out on the bed.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XIII
2  Why, there's hardly a handful of Democrats in the whole County who aren't barred from voting, now that they've ruled out every man who fought in the Confederate Army.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVII
3  Near the bed stood a table holding her breakfast tray, with its harmonious porcelain and silver, a handful of violets in a slender glass, and the morning paper folded beneath her letters.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: Chapter 4
4  Puzzled by the sudden change in her tone, he mechanically gathered a handful of wood from the basket and tossed it on the fire.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 12
5  She ran down the gravelly embankment, smiled at children gathering flowers in a little basket, thrust a handful of the soft pasque flowers into the bosom of her white blouse.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XII
6  He picked up a handful of pop-corn, let it run through his fingers, looked at her wistfully.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVI
7  The ship's company being reduced to but a handful, the captain called upon the Islanders to assist him in the laborious business of heaving down the ship to stop the leak.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 54. The Town-Ho's Story.
8  I caught a handful of whiskers and pulled, shouting something.
My Antonia By Willa Cather
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2. The Hired Girls: XV
9  There was a gold watch, for one thing, with a chain and locket; there was a silver pencil, and a matchbox, and a handful of small change, and finally a card-case.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 25
10  Far off to the right, through a window in the forest could be seen a handful of stars lying, like glittering pebbles, on the black level of the night.
The Red Badge of Courage By Stephen Crane
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 13
11  It was a handful of men splattered into the faces of the enemy.
The Red Badge of Courage By Stephen Crane
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 19
12  The two men examined the handful of coins.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer By Mark Twain
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVI
13  If his notions of hidden treasure had been analyzed, they would have been found to consist of a handful of real dimes and a bushel of vague, splendid, ungraspable dollars.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer By Mark Twain
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXVII
14  Before day-dawn, Judge Thatcher and the handful of searchers with him were tracked out, in the cave, by the twine clews they had strung behind them, and informed of the great news.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer By Mark Twain
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXII
15  So she made a fire on her hearth, and that it might burn the quicker, she lighted it with a handful of straw.
Grimms' Fairy Tales By Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Context  Highlight   In THE STRAW, THE COAL, AND THE BEAN
Example Sentence: (172 in 12 pages)
16  The nursery teacher clapped her hands to attract the children's attention.
17  The baby was crawling around on its hands and knees.
18  I saw him step forward momentarily but then hang back, nervously massaging his hands.
19  Her hands began to twist the handles of the bag she carried.
20  The hands of a clock turn very slowly.
21  The devil finds work for idle hands to do.
22  Make sure your hands are clean before you have your dinner.
23  She will now begin occupational therapy to regain the use of her hands.
24  We watched the vase begin to take shape in the potter's hands.
25  She hoped they wouldn't cuff her hands behind her back.
26  They had their hands tied behind their backs.
27  One good head is better than a hundred strong hands.
28  Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.
29  Her hands were covered in dust and she had a black smudge on her nose.
30  He refused to imbrue his hands with the blood of more killing.