plateful
Americannoun
-
the amount that a plate will hold.
-
a large portion or quantity.
a plateful of contracts to negotiate.
Spelling
See -ful.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of plateful
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Flag isn’t like the Baxters’ other animals: He can’t pull a plow, track a bear, provide milk, or become a plateful of cracklings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
When you bite into a juicy hamburger, slice into the perfect medium-rare steak or gobble down a plateful of chicken nuggets, your senses are most likely responding to the food's smell, taste, texture and color.
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2024
Alexandra herself worked on “getting fuller on less,” trying to limit each meal to a single plateful.
From New York Times ● Oct. 31, 2023
It was the product of our imaginations, a plateful of guesswork.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 22, 2019
She banged a plateful of rice and beans in front of him, a fork, a glass of water.
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
A cavernous, popular arcade in Brussels which for generations has drawn partiers seeking platefuls of mussels to wash down with that city’s famed brews sadly no longer resounds with late-evening laughter and chatter.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 24, 2020
People used to stampede down the halls when it was cookie time and grab handfuls or platefuls instead of taking one.
From Slate ● Mar. 4, 2019
In his mind, X. says some strongly-worded things about girls as a concept, eats two platefuls of chubby little doughnuts, and succumbs to several hours of moral and physical melancholy.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 23, 2018
Groups of people were staggering around clutching platefuls of them.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 15, 2017
Mom said as she served out three platefuls of spaghetti and meatballs.
From "A Boy Called Bat" by Elana K. Arnold
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
