clawful

English

Etymology

From claw +‎ -ful.

Noun

clawful (plural clawfuls or clawsful)

1. As much as is held in one's claws or (expressively) in one's hand.
   • 1866, James Greenwood, Reminiscences of a Raven, page 117:

     [The owls] made sly grips at my breast feathers, and carried off whole clawsful […]

   • 1870, C. A. Stephens, “Our Young Hawks”, in Our Young Folks: An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls, volume VI, page 699:

     But our little savage had thrown himself flat on his back with his talons up, and when the rooster charged upon him he struck them into the old fellow's breast, taking out two big clawfuls of feathers.

   • 2010 [1973], Cormac McCarthy, Child of God, →ISBN, page 180:

     He seized a clawful of rubble and hurled it up the shaft.