[f. TABLE sb. + -FUL.] The amount or number that a table will hold or accommodate. a. As many (persons) as can be seated at a table; a company seated at a table and occupying all the seats around it.
1535. Coverdale, Mark vi. 39. He commaunded them all to syt down by table fulles vpon the grene grass.
1774. Abigail Adams, in Fam. Lett. (1876), 35. We make a table-full at meal times.
1858. O. W. Holmes, Aut. Breakf.-t., iii. One man who is a little too literal can spoil the talk of a whole tableful of men of esprit.
b. As many (things) as a table will hold.
1886. Philadelphia Times, 9 Jan. (Cent.). Three large tablefuls of housekeeping things.
