SPOONFUL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does spoonful mean? 

• SPOONFUL (noun)
  The noun SPOONFUL has 1 sense:

1. as much as a spoon will hold

  Familiarity information: SPOONFUL used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SPOONFUL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

As much as a spoon will hold

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

spoon; spoonful

Context example:

he added two spoons of sugar

Hypernyms ("spoonful" is a kind of...):

containerful (the quantity that a container will hold)

 Context examples 

"Your stomach's sour. That's what's ailin' you. Swallow a spoonful of sody, an' you'll sweeten up wonderful an' be more pleasant company."

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“My dear,” said my aunt, after taking a spoonful of it; “it's a great deal better than wine. Not half so bilious.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

If I had my way, I'd have Cap'n Smollett work us back into the trades at least; then we'd have no blessed miscalculations and a spoonful of water a day.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Amy, who was fond of delicate fare, took a heaping spoonful, choked, hid her face in her napkin, and left the table precipitately.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Martin roused himself and sat up and began to eat, between spoonfuls reassuring Maria that he had not been talking in his sleep and that he did not have any fever.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A helot of Agesilaus made us a dish of Spartan broth, but I was not able to get down a second spoonful.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Now they were all beautiful, and all exactly alike: but he was told that the eldest had eaten a piece of sugar, the next some sweet syrup, and the youngest a spoonful of honey; so he was to guess which it was that had eaten the honey.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Few children can eat when excited with the thoughts of a journey; nor could I. Bessie, having pressed me in vain to take a few spoonfuls of the boiled milk and bread she had prepared for me, wrapped up some biscuits in a paper and put them into my bag; then she helped me on with my pelisse and bonnet, and wrapping herself in a shawl, she and I left the nursery.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Ravenous, and now very faint, I devoured a spoonful or two of my portion without thinking of its taste; but the first edge of hunger blunted, I perceived I had got in hand a nauseous mess; burnt porridge is almost as bad as rotten potatoes; famine itself soon sickens over it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

After half an hour the sun shone again and the grocer's automobile rounded Gatsby's drive with the raw material for his servants' dinner—I felt sure he wouldn't eat a spoonful.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)