English

edit

Etymology

edit

From cake +‎ -ful.

Noun

edit

cakeful (plural cakefuls or cakesful)

  1. As much as a cake has.
    • 1965, Indian Aviation, page 237:
      Trans World Airlines had a cakeful of candles recenly[sic] to light up an anniversary.
    • 1971, James Goldman (book), Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics), “Bring On The Girls”, in Follies: The Complete Recording[1], TVT Records, published 1998:
      Roscoe Cheers to the girls, Young Roscoe Beautiful girls, Both Who fill our stage. Roscoe Delicious, Young Roscoe Enticing, Roscoe The crème de la crème. Young Roscoe A cakeful of icing, Cannot compare to them.
    • 1976, Dorothy T. Samuel, “Liberating Marriages”, in Love, Liberation, and Marriage, New York, N.Y.: Funk & Wagnalls, →ISBN, page 127:
      Love and sex, these were an icing on his whole cakeful of goodies. Like many women, Rebecca realized that such a cakeful of goodies could not exist for him were she not there to do the innumerable drudge tasks of daily existence.
    • 1988, Dorothy Weiss Gottlieb, Inez Bellow Gottlieb, Marjorie A. Slavin, “There’s No Such Thing As an Ex-Grandparent”, in What to Do When Your Son or Daughter Divorces, Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 128:
      My birthday was coming up, and although I prefer to just let it slip by, I thought the little ones should have a cakeful of candles to blow out and a chance to sing Happy Birthday.
    • 1990, Health, page 61:
      First, get an idea of what it feels like to work the muscle by sitting up straight and exhaling fully, as if you were blowing out a cakeful of candles;
    • 1992, the editors of Klutz, “Hand Whistling”, in Kids Shenanigans: Great Things to Do That Mom and Dad Will Just Barely Approve Of, Klutz, →ISBN, section “Two More Minutes and You Still Can't Get It”, page 34:
      Imagine you're faced with a cakeful of candles and have to blow out only one of them.
    • 1992, Eve Brock, “Assist Yourself! Identify your Negative Wizards”, in Think Slim: The Seven-Step Programme to Slim-Fitness, London: Vermilion, →ISBN, part I (The Seven Steps to Slim-Fitness), page 80:
      ‘I can go all day hardly eating anything. Then, wham, I get this dreadful urge and in no time I’ve eaten cakesful of calories!’
    • 2001, Ray Garton, Sex and Violence in Hollywood, Gollancz, published 2016, →ISBN:
      She stabbed the cigarette into her mouth, lit up, and blew smoke from her lungs as if she were blowing out a cakeful of candles.
    • 2003, Xcp: Cross-cultural Poetics, page 123:
      The latest is: we got a little more frosting in the north. Not a cakeful, but more than a nibble.
    • 2009, Julie Myerson, The Lost Child: A True Story, London, Berlin, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 296:
      The same kitchen table where he must have blown out so many cakefuls of birthday candles over the years.
    • 2010, Ron Jost, Holding Out the Hand of a Dead Relative, Great Horned Publishing, →ISBN, page 44:
      One day, I hope to add another zero to the same old one, as I blow out a cakeful of candles – a faceful of smiles on my wrinkled pate.
  NODES
Story 1