subs. (old: now colloquial).—A large number or quantity: also POWERATION. Whence POWERFUL, adj. and adv. = extremely; also (quot. 1847) eloquent.
[?]. MS. Cotton, Vespas. A, xxv. Then came into Inglond kynge Jamys of Skotland, with a POUAR of men, after Alhalow tide.
1675. WYCHERLEY, The Country Wife, iii. 2. Lord, what a POWER of brave signs are here.
1740. RICHARDSON, Pamela, ii. 389. I am providing a POWER of pretty things for her.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, ii. “He has a POWER of money, and spends it like a prince.”
1777. SHERIDAN, A Trip to Scarborough, iv. 1. These lords have a POWER of wealth indeed.
1847. J. M. FIELD, The Drama in Pokerville, 94. Mr. Grire, a ‘POWERFUL man,’ was expected to make a ‘great effort.’
1848. W. E. BURTON, Waggeries and Vagaries, 23. He felt it tickle POWERFUL from the top of his head to the eend of his starn fin.
1851. J. J. HOOPER, Dick M’Coy’s Sketches of His Neighbours, 36. ‘Ah! is he lazy much?’ ‘POWERFUL.’
1843. B. R. HALL (‘Robert Carlton’) The New Purchase, II. 8. A pianne! what could it be? Was it a sort a fiddle-like—only bigger, and with a POWERFUL heap of wire strings? Ibid., I. 74. Yes, Mr. Speaker,… I’d a POWERFUL sight sooner go into retiracy among the red, wild, Abor’rejines of our wooden country, nor consent to that bill.
1872. Chambers’ Miscellany, No. 152, 3. ‘Was there a good fair to-day?’ ‘There was, ma’am, a POWER and all of people in it.’
1876. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, iii. 34. You can work when you’re a mind to, Tom…. But it’s POWERFUL seldom you’re a mind to, I’m bound to say.
1892. Tit-Bits, 17 Sept., 419, 2. He’s POWERFUL bad, miss.
