parkful

English

Etymology

From park +‎ -ful.

Noun

parkful (plural parkfuls or parksful)

1. Enough to fill a park.
   • 1849, “A Stock of Admirals, Captains, & Generals, Sufficient to Last for the Next 100 Years”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume 17, London, page 164:

     But if we have an ocean of Admirals, with only a Trafalgar Square Basin to put them in, we have likewise a whole parkful of Captains, and nothing but charity boys to give them to lead to victory.

   • 1949 July 28, The Anadarko Daily News, volume 48, number 298, Anadarko, Okla., page 1:

     Parkful Sees Civic Clubs Tie 24 To 24 / A parkful of people watched Lions and Kiwanians struggle to a 24-24 deadlock last night in the softball extravaganza of the year.

   • 1959 March 18, “Quick Click on English Channel”, in Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wis., page 6:

     We have a hunch they pictured the consequences when that kid came on the screen popping off about how good his cough syrup tastes on ice cream, and then they’d have parksful of children bawling for cough syrup on their ice cream, and the old geezers shouting that it twarnt like this when Old Winnie was in power, that’s what—

   • 1968 August 13, “Pickwick Puppets a Screaming Hit”, in The Evening Press, volume 90, Binghamton, N.Y., page 1-C:

     The kids jammed a corner of Recreation Park yesterday afternoon to scream their approval of the Pickwick Puppet Theater (which at times performs with symphony orchestras around the country when it is not enthralling parksful of children) brought to town by the New York State Office of Economic Opportunity and the Binghamton Parks Department.

   • 1979, The Norton Anthology of American Literature, volume I, New York, N.Y., London: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 1861:

     I.e., parksful of artillery—from the custom of drilling and parading in civic parks.

   • 1992, Alison Glen, Showcase: A Charlotte Sams Mystery, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 205:

     When she heard about Sigrid’s new position, Charlotte envisioned her whipping into shape whole parkfuls of Columbusites with her relentless exercising.

   • 2006, Joshua Prager, The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, page 267:

     And so in time would Gillette hock with razors a million more, would the call be superimposed onto newsreel, would “talking” baseball cards play it at 33⅓ rpm, Hodges caterwauling always five times in 13 seconds that the Giants won the pennant, the Giants won the pennant, a mantra embedded now in the minds of millions, among them parkfuls of fans to swear that it was Hodges they heard holler of a homer, though in truth they had on October 3, 1951, tuned in beyond the reach of 570 AM.

   • 2008 July 26, Dick Johnson, “Great Bowls of Fire”, in Globe Gazette, page A1:

     Red-hot chili, savory ribs and chicken and top-notch entertainment draw a parkful of people Friday as the 2008 Up In Smoke BBQ Bash begins

   • 2010 April 14, Steve Visser, “Try not to freak out over crowds”, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, volume 62, number 104, page A4:

     But he [Brian Hill] is mum on now^[sic] many people he expects to attend. “I think we’ll have a parkful,” he said.

   • 2010 July 8, Allen Edmonds, “Raymore rolls the dice, satisfies fireworks fans”, in The Star Herald, page 7A:

     And since the beginning of the evening, a parkful of celebrants partied to the country sounds of T-Mary & Hammer Down, ate refreshments from the concession stand, played football and Frisbee and visited with friends and family in lawn chairs.