pailful

Alternative forms

• paileful, pailfull (both obsolete)

Etymology

From pail +‎ -ful.

Noun

pailful (plural pailfuls or pailsful)

1. The amount that fills, or would fill, a pail. [from 16th c.]
   • c. 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, First Folio 1623, act 2 scene 2:

     if it should thunder, as it did before, I know not where to hide my head: yond same cloud cannot choose but fall by pailefuls.

   • 1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther 1974, p. 118:

     McGrath's lounge was a vast brownish room, with a beige ceiling of heavy plaster divided into squares […] and finally swabbed with pailfuls of gilt.