How to Use fistful in a Sentence

fistful

noun
  • She has won a fistful of awards.
  • Two large fistfuls of hair were stuck in its teeth, yanked loose like weak weeds from dirt.
    — Safiya Sinclair, The New Yorker, 31 July 2023
  • Char a fistful of jalapeños, then remove the seeds, skins, and stems.
    — Mark Bittman, GQ, 29 June 2017
  • To test if soil is loamy, take a fistful with a gloved hand and ball it up in your palm.
    — Nadia Hassani, The Spruce, 16 Feb. 2026
  • After four hours, one climbed down, seized a fistful of clay, and flew off.
    — Nell Zink, Harper's magazine, 28 Oct. 2019
  • And Lee has a chance to come home with a fistful of hardware too.
    — Will Graves, baltimoresun.com, 27 June 2021
  • Rip off fistfuls of dough and stretch them into ovals slightly longer than the sausages.
    — Nina Mandell, For The Win, 2 Feb. 2018
  • Then Doug stood up, towering over me, and grabbed a fistful of my hair.
    — Erin Zammett Ruddy, Marie Claire, 3 Aug. 2017
  • Of course, for someone with fistfuls of cash to buy stocks, someone must be selling them.
    — John Tamny, Forbes, 2 Apr. 2023
  • Luis Valentin derailed his life for two years over an iPhone and a fistful of cash.
    — Vinny Vella, Courant Community, 8 Sep. 2017
  • To the side, women wailed, beating their chests or throwing fistfuls of rice and rose petals.
    — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 11 Mar. 2025
  • Both of my sandwiches had what looked to be a fistful of pickles stacked under the bun.
    — Paul Stephen, San Antonio Express-News, 10 Feb. 2021
  • There were no fiery explosions or massive set pieces that cycled in for fistfuls of songs.
    — Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 15 May 2026
  • Thanks to the fistfuls of cheese and mayo, this popular dip can be over-the-top in terms of calories and fat.
    — Samantha Cassetty, NBC News, 1 Feb. 2018
  • So far, only a fistful of players have been awarded it, and almost none of them are worth it.
    — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 26 Nov. 2020
  • Of course, something tells us posing with a fistful of fresh kale would be a lot less lucrative.
    — Emma Sarran Webster, Allure, 11 Jan. 2018
  • If you're tempted to randomly gather a fistful of strands and throw them in the trash, think twice.
    — Claire Hoppe Norgaard, Better Homes & Gardens, 26 Dec. 2024
  • There are still stripes of snow on the mountains, which are peppered here and there with fistfuls of pipe-cleaner pine trees.
    — Julie Beck, The Atlantic, 23 June 2017
  • Skip the olive oil and blend equal parts tahini and lemon juice with salt, a fistful of parsley and oodles of garlic.
    — Paul Stephen, ExpressNews.com, 15 Aug. 2020
  • Meals consisting of white bread, cheese and a fistful of leafy greens replaced gourmet meals served by celebrity chefs.
    — Eder Campuzano, OregonLive.com, 24 May 2017
  • How a character is collecting walnuts or has a fistful of berries in her hand.
    — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 26 Nov. 2025
  • And if Downing had to put his money on a fistful of trends with staying power?
    — Lisa Armstrong, Harper's BAZAAR, 25 Feb. 2009
  • The crab cake is soft and smells off; the broccolini is a fistful of green that’s both oily and acrid, with zero spark.
    — Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, 26 May 2023
  • Losing fistfuls of hair might happen while the body adjusts to the hormones in birth control pills.
    — Christin Perry, Parents, 10 Sep. 2023
  • On a decent day, the vein would produce a fistful of gold chips that could be exchanged for maybe a week’s food and supplies.
    — Alma Guillermoprieto, The New York Review of Books, 6 June 2019
  • There’s the name, of course, and a menu that looks like it was drawn by an 8-year-old with a fistful of Highlighters.
    — Phil Vettel, chicagotribune.com, 9 Oct. 2020
  • And here is Melania’s hand slapping his tiny fingers down and giving him a fistful of sleeve.
    — Stephen A. Crockett Jr., The Root, 25 Apr. 2018
  • The coconut has a hole in the top just large enough for a monkey to insert its hand but not big enough to remove a fistful of rice.
    — Arthur C. Brooks, The Atlantic, 19 Aug. 2021
  • Usher came and went from the stage between fistfuls of songs, changing into a stream of new outfits to match the vibe of the tracks at hand.
    — Steven J. Horowitz, Variety, 23 Sep. 2024
  • That night in his Chevy, Coughlin took a fistful of pills and ended up in the hospital.
    — Megan O’Matz, ProPublica, 26 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fistful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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