rowboatful

English

Etymology

rowboat +‎ -ful

Noun

rowboatful (plural rowboatfuls or rowboatsful)

1. Enough to fill a rowboat.
   • 1950, Southwest Review - Volumes 35-36, page 166:

     There were a few other families also picnicking and a rowboatful of young people in bathing suits were amusing themselves, sometimes rowing and sometimes stopping to dive out of the boat and climb back again amid cheerful shrieks and laughter.

   • 1954, Eddie Davis, Laugh Yourself Well: A Merry Mixture of Medical Mirth, page 46:

     During a recent midwestern flood, CBS' Edward R. Murrow reports, a rowboatful of volunteer rescue workers spied a man perched atop an almost completely submerged Tin Lizzie, crying, "Help! Help!"

   • 1963, World, page 30:

     Since that tumultuous evening in 1958, the British public has been treated to many wonderful sights: parades at Easter time from Trafalgar Square to the nuclear laboratories at Alder- maston, the Labour party torn in two by a vigorous ban-the-bomb movement, defiant rowboatfuls of young pacifists at the Holy Loch, Bertrand Russell squatting in front of the Ministry of Defence and going to jail for his trouble.