lapful

American  

[lap-fool] / ˈlæp fʊl /

noun

• lapfuls
  plural

1. as much as the lap can hold.

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Spelling

See -ful.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• lapfuls
  plural

Etymology

Origin of lapful

First recorded in 1605–15; lap ¹ + -ful

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lapful lapfuls

Ex-NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg got a lapful of Knicks sparkplug Jose Alvarado, Walt Frazier and Patrick Ewing got the biggest Jumbotron cheers of the night, and San Antonio got a critical W.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

Thus Nowell-Wilson cradles a lapful of eggs in one of her drawings, whose poses are modeled on classical canvases.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 23, 2021

Then she saw the woman’s lapful of food and reached out hungrily.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 2, 2018

I recently found myself with a lapful of beignets, giddy with a childish excitement, in the backseat of a rental car.

From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2017

Then I’d think about Aunt Loma with that lapful of rat or my mother jumping up on the seat, and it was like I was a gun fired off.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns

Martin challenged them to prove this, and they plucked lapfuls of the small white daisies with big yellow eyes, and threaded chains of great length, and hung them about each other's necks.

From Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard by Eleanor Farjeon

They are handed about from lapfuls in every coffeehouse to persons of quality, are shewn in Westminster-Hall and the Court of Requests.

From The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. — Volume 09 Contributions to The Tatler, The Examiner, The Spectator, and The Intelligencer by Jonathan Swift

I gathered lapfuls of the lovely blossoms, and commenced arranging them in the vases.

From My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin

How many hours of pleasant labour in that enclosed bit of ground there had been; how many lapfuls and basketfuls of fruits the rich reward of the labour; how Lois had enjoyed both!

From Nobody by Susan Warner

Later, as the ebb-tide flows from marsh to sea, we are parenthetically treated to these two lines:     "Run home, little streams,     With your lapfuls of stars and dreams."

From Select Poems of Sidney Lanier by Morgan Callaway