From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
handful \hand"ful\ (h[a^]nd"f[.u]l), noun; pl. {handfuls} (h[a^]nd"f[.u]lz). [AS. handfull.]
1. As much as the hand will grasp or contain. --Addison.
2. A hand's breadth; four inches. [Obs.]
Knap the tongs together about a handful from the bottom. --Bacon.
3. A small quantity or number.
This handful of men were tied to very hard duty. --Fuller.
4. A person, task, or situation, which is the most that one can manage; as, my two-year-old is a handful. [PJC]
{To have one's handful}, to have one's hands full; to have all one can do. [Obs.]
They had their handful to defend themselves from firing. --Sir. W. Raleigh.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
handful
noun
1: a small number or amount; "only a handful of responses were received" [syn: {smattering}]
2: the quantity that can be held in the hand [syn: {fistful}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
87 Moby Thesaurus words for "handful": Augean task, Herculean task, a few, ace, atom, backbreaker, ballbuster, bit, bitch, bother, chore, couple, dab, dead lift, dole, dot, dram, dribble, driblet, dwarf, farthing, few, fistful, fleck, flyspeck, fragment, gobbet, grain, granule, groat, hair, hard job, hard pull, heavy sledding, iota, jot, large order, limited number, little, little bit, man-sized job, minim, minimum, minutiae, mischief-maker, mite, modicum, molecule, mote, nuisance, nutshell, only a few, ounce, particle, pebble, piddling few, piddling number, pinch, pittance, point, rough go, scattering, scruple, small number, smatter, smattering, smidgen, smitch, spatter, spattering, speck, spoonful, spot, sprinkling, tall order, thimbleful, tiny bit, tittle, too few, tough job, tough proposition, trickle, trifling amount, trivia, troublemaker, uphill work, whit
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