full

• enPR: fo͝ol, IPA^(key): /fʊl/,
• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /fʉl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Homophone: fool (accents with FOOT-GOOSE merger or full-fool merger)
• Rhymes: -ʊl

From Middle English ful, from Old English full (“full”), from Proto-West Germanic *full, from Proto-Germanic *fullaz (“full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”).

Germanic cognates include West Frisian fol, Low German vull, Dutch vol, German voll, Danish fuld, and Norwegian and Swedish full (the latter three via Old Norse). Proto-Indo-European cognates include English plenty (via Latin, compare plēnus), Welsh llawn, Russian по́лный (pólnyj), Lithuanian pilnas, Persian پر (por), Sanskrit पूर्ण (pūrṇá).

See also fele and Scots fou (whence the English doublet fou (“drunk”)). For the "drunk, intoxicated" sense, compare also Swedish full and other Scandinavian languages.

full (comparative fuller or more full, superlative fullest or most full)

1. Containing the maximum possible amount that can fit in the space available.

   The jugs were full to the point of overflowing.

2. Complete; with nothing omitted.
   • 1976 March 27, F. Dudley Hart, “History of the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis”, in British Medical Journal, volume 1, number 6012, →DOI, →JSTOR, page 763:

     Anybody can cure a curable disease if he happens to have the right drug at hand, but the treatment of a condition for which there is no positive cure makes much greater demands on the doctor, who has to be practical pharmacologist, human being, psychiatrist, and father confessor—he has, in fact, to be a proper physician in the fullest sense of the word.

   • 2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:

     Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. […] A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.

   Our book gives full treatment to the subject of angling.

   1. (category theory, of a functor between locally small categories) Surjective as a map of morphisms

      Coordinate terms: faithful, fully faithful

   2. (category theory, of a subcategory S of C) Including all morphisms. Formally: Such that for every pairs of objects (X, Y) in S, the hom-sets ${\displaystyle \operatorname {Hom} _{S}(X,Y)}$ and ${\displaystyle \operatorname {Hom} _{C}(X,Y)}$ are equal.

      Coordinate terms: embedding, replete, strictly full

3. Total, entire.
   • 1913, Joseph C Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     'Twas early June, the new grass was flourishing everywheres, the posies in the yard—peonies and such—in full bloom, the sun was shining, and the water of the bay was blue, with light green streaks where the shoal showed.

   She had tattoos the full length of her arms.   He was prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

4. Completely empowered, authorized or qualified (in some role); not limited.

   full member

   full officer

5. (informal) Having eaten to satisfaction, having a "full" stomach; replete.

   "I'm full," he said, pushing back from the table.

6. (informal, with "of") Replete, abounding with.

   This movie doesn't make sense; it's full of plot holes.

   I prefer my pizzas full of toppings.

7. (informal, of hands, chiefly in the plural) Carrying as much as possible.

   Hang on - my hands are full; just let me put these down.

8. (of physical features) Plump, round.

   full lips; a full face; a full figure

9. (of the moon) Having its entire face illuminated.
   • 1969, Alan S. Feinstein, Folk tales from Siam, page 82:

     For on those evenings, when the moon is full and bright and clear, mothers and fathers in Siam tell their children to look up at the moon and then ask them what they see there.

10. (of garments) Of a size that is ample, wide, or having ample folds or pleats to be comfortable.

    a full pleated skirt; She needed her full clothing during her pregnancy.

11. Having depth and body; rich.

    a full singing voice

12. (obsolete) Having the mind filled with ideas; stocked with knowledge; stored with information.
    • 1625, Francis , “Of Studies”, in The Essayes , 3rd edition, London: Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

      Reading maketh a full man.

13. Having the attention, thoughts, etc., absorbed in any matter, and the feelings more or less excited by it.

    She's full of her latest project.

    • 1693, [John Locke], “§7”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: A and J Churchill, , →OCLC:

      Everyone is now full of the miracles done by cold baths on decayed and weak constitutions.

14. Filled with emotions.
    • 1848, James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal:

      The heart is so full that a drop overfills it.

15. (obsolete) Impregnated; made pregnant.
    • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

      Ilia, the fair, […] full of Mars.

16. (poker, postnominal) Said of the three cards of the same rank in a full house.

    nines full of aces (three nines and two aces)

    I'll beat him with my kings full! (three kings and two unspecified cards of the same rank)

17. (chiefly Australia) Drunk, intoxicated.
    • 1925, United States House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee No. 1, Charges Against William E. Baker, U.S. District Judge:

      Mr. Coniff: That is the only evidence you gave of his being intoxicated, that his hat was on the side? Mr. Coniff: That is the only indication you gave the committee when you were asked if the judge was full, that his hat was on the side of his head; is that right?

• (containing the maximum possible amount): abounding, brimful, bursting, chock-a-block, chock-full, full up, full to bursting, full to overflowing, jam full, jammed, jam-packed, laden, loaded, overflowing, packed, rammed, stuffed
• (complete): complete, thorough
• (total): entire, total
• (satisfied, in relation to eating): glutted, gorged, sated, satiate, satiated, satisfied, stuffed
• (of a garment): baggy, big, large, loose, outsized, oversized, voluminous
• (drunk): See Thesaurus:drunk

• (antonym(s) of “containing the maximum possible amount”): empty
• (antonym(s) of “complete”): incomplete
• (antonym(s) of “total”): partial
• (antonym(s) of “satisfied, in relation to eating”): empty, hungry, starving
• (antonym(s) of “of a garment”): close-fitting, small, tight, tight-fitting

• → Gulf Arabic: فُل (ful)
• → Japanese: フル

full (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Fully; quite; very; thoroughly; completely; exactly; entirely.
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Prospero:
     I have done nothing but in care of thee,
     Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who
     Art ignorant of what thou art; naught knowing
     Of whence I am, nor that I am more better
     Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell,
     And thy no greater father.

   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     […] full in the centre of the sacred wood

   • 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act IV, scene I, verse 112:

     You know full well what makes me look so pale.

   • 1880, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, William Blake, lines 9–12:

     This cupboard […]
     this other one,
     His true wife's charge, full oft to their abode
     Yielded for daily bread the martyr's stone,

   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, section IX:

     It is full strange to him who hears and feels,
     When wandering there in some deserted street,
     The booming and the jar of ponderous wheels, […]

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     I turned my head, and as I lay gasping in the throes of that awful struggle I could see that Leo was off the rock now, for the lamplight fell full upon him.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, […].

• full-grown
• full well

From Middle English fulle, fylle, fille, from Old English fyllu, fyllo (“fullness, fill, plenty”), from Proto-Germanic *fullį̄, *fulnō (“fullness, filling, overflow”), from Proto-Indo-European *plūno-, *plno- (“full”), from *pelh₁-, *pleh₁- (“to fill; full”). Cognate with German Fülle (“fullness, fill”), Icelandic fylli (“fulness, fill”). More at fill.

full (plural fulls)

1. Utmost measure or extent; highest state or degree; the state, position, or moment of fullness; fill.
   • c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     The swan's-down feather,
     That stands upon the swell at full of tide.

   • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “ The Third Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. , London: Jacob Tonson , →OCLC:

     Sicilian tortures and the brazen bull,
     Are emblems, rather than express the full
     Of what he feels.

   I was fed to the full.

   • 1911, Berthold Auerbach, Bayard Taylor, The villa on the Rhine:

     […] he had tasted their food, and found it so palatable that he had eaten his full before he knew it.

   • 2008, Jay Cassell, The Gigantic Book Of Hunting Stories:

     Early next morning we were over at the elk carcass, and, as we expected, found that the bear had eaten his full at it during the night.

   • 2010, C. E. Morgan, All the Living: A Novel:

     When he had eaten his full, they set to work again.

2. (of the moon) The phase of the moon when its entire face is illuminated, full moon.
   • a. 1622, Francis Bacon, Natural History, in The works of Francis Bacon, 1765, page 322

     It is like, that the brain of man waxeth moister and fuller upon the full of the moon:

   • a. 1656, Joseph Hall, Josiah Pratt (editor), Works, Volume VII: Practical Works, Revised edition, 1808 page 219,

     This earthly moon, the Church, hath her fulls and wanings, and sometimes her eclipses, while the shadow of this sinful mass hides her beauty from the world.

3. (freestyle skiing) An aerialist maneuver consisting of a backflip in conjunction and simultaneous with a complete twist.

(freestyle skiing):

full (third-person singular simple present fulls, present participle fulling, simple past and past participle fulled)

2. (of the moon) To become full or wholly illuminated.
   • 1888 September 20, “The Harvest Moon”, in New York Times, retrieved 10 April 2013:

     The September moon fulls on the 20th at 24 minutes past midnight, and is called the harvest moon.

   • 1905, Annie Fellows Johnston, chapter 4, in The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation:

     "By the black cave of Atropos, when the moon fulls, keep thy tryst!"

   • 1918, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 29, in The Story Of Waitstill Baxter:

     "The moon fulls to-night, don't it?"

From Middle English fullen (“to baptise”), fulwen, from Old English fullian, fulwian (“to baptise”), from full- + *wīhan (later *wēon). Compare Old English fulluht, fulwiht (“baptism”).

full (third-person singular simple present fulls, present participle fulling, simple past and past participle fulled)

1. (transitive) To baptise.
   • 1610 October, John Foxe, “An Old Ancient Writing Intituled, The Praier and Complaint of the Ploughman”, in Actes and Monuments of Matters Most Speciall and Memorable, Happening in the Church, with an Vniuersall Historie of the Same. , 6th edition, volume I, London: for the Company of Stationers, →OCLC, book V, page 373, column 2:

     And thy diſciples fulleden men in thy name, in forgiueneſſe of her ſinnes.

• fulling

From Middle English fullen (“to full”), from Middle French fouler, from Old French foler, fouler (“to tread, to stamp, to full”), from Medieval Latin fullare, from Latin fullo (“a fuller”).

full (third-person singular simple present fulls, present participle fulling, simple past and past participle fulled)

1. To make cloth denser and firmer by soaking, beating and pressing; to waulk or walk.

   Synonyms: tuck, walk, waulk

Inherited from Latin folium (“leaf”). Compare French feuille, Spanish hoja, Italian foglio, Italian foglia (the latter from Latin folia, plural of folium). Doublet of the borrowing foli.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uʎ

full m (plural fulls)

1. sheet of paper

• fulla

• “full” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): /ful/

Borrowed from English full.

full (plural fulls)

1. (North America) full
2. (North America) overflowing, packed, crowded

full

1. (North America) very, really

   C’est full poche, ça ! ― That really sucks!

From English full house.

full m (plural fulls)

1. (poker) full house

• “full”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

From English full house.

full m (invariable)

1. (card games, poker) full house, boat

full

1. Alternative form of ful

full

1. Alternative form of fullen (“to full”)

From Danish fuld, from Old Norse fullr, from Proto-Germanic *fullaz, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós. Cognates include Swedish full, Norwegian Nynorsk full, Icelandic fullur, German voll, Dutch vol, English full, Gothic 𐍆𐌿𐌻𐌻𐍃 (fulls), Lithuanian pilnas, Old Church Slavonic плънъ (plŭnŭ), Latin plēnus, Ancient Greek πλήρης (plḗrēs) and πλέως (pléōs), Old Irish lán, and Sanskrit पूर्ण (pūrṇa).

• IPA^(key): /fʉl/

• Audio:

  (file)

full (neuter singular fullt, definite singular and plural fulle, comparative fullere, indefinite superlative fullest, definite superlative fulleste)

1. full (containing the maximum possible amount)
2. drunk

• fylle

• -full (Bokmål)

• “full” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse fullr, from Proto-Germanic *fullaz, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós. Cognates include Danish fuld, Swedish full, Icelandic fullur, German voll, Dutch vol, English full, Gothic 𐍆𐌿𐌻𐌻𐍃 (fulls), Lithuanian pilnas, Old Church Slavonic плънъ (plŭnŭ), Latin plēnus, Ancient Greek πλήρης (plḗrēs) and πλέως (pléōs), Old Irish lán, and Sanskrit पूर्ण (pūrṇa).

• IPA^(key): /fʊlː/

full (neuter singular fullt, definite singular and plural fulle, comparative fullare, indefinite superlative fullast, definite superlative fullaste)

1. full (containing the maximum possible amount)

   Glaset er fullt. ― The glass is full.

2. drunk

   Ho drakk seg full på raudvin. ― She got drunk on red wine.

3. complete, total

   Han har full kontroll. ― He is in total control.

• fylla
• fylle

• Russenorsk: fol

• “full” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /full/,

From Proto-West Germanic *full, from Proto-Germanic *fullaz, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”), from *pleh₁- (“to fill”).

• ful

full

1. full
   • late 9th century, translation of Bede's Ecclesiastical History

     Iċ ġeseah þone fæġerostan feld fulne grōwendra blostmena.

     I saw the most beautiful field full of growing flowers.

2. filled
3. complete
4. entire

• fullīċe
• fyllan
• fyllu

• Middle English: ful, fol, full, vol, vul
  • English: full
  • Scots: fou, full
  • Yola: vull

From Proto-Germanic *fullą (“vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *pēl(w)- (“a kind of vessel”). Akin to Old Saxon full (“beaker”), Old Norse full (“beaker, toast”).

• ful

full n

1. a beaker
2. a cup, especially one with liquor in it

Strong a-stem:

full

1. inflection of fullr:
   1. strong feminine nominative singular
   2. strong neuter nominative/accusative plural

Unadapted borrowing from English full.

• IPA^(key): /ˈful/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ul
• Syllabification: full

full (not comparable, no derived adverb)

1. (colloquial) Alternative spelling of ful

full m inan

1. (colloquial) Alternative spelling of ful

full

1. (colloquial) Alternative spelling of ful

• full in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• full in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Unadapted borrowing from English full.

full

1. (slang) completely, absolutely, fully, super

   Ele está full lixado.

   He's super screwed.

This word is slang used almost exclusively by the youth, partially satirically (though it has come to be used in serious informal contexts).

• IPA^(key): /ˈful/
• Rhymes: -ul
• Syllabification: full

full m (plural full)

1. (poker) full house

• “full”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

From Old Norse fullr, from Proto-Germanic *fullaz, from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós.

• IPA^(key): /fɵl/

• Audio:

  (file)

full

1. full (containing the maximum possible amount)
2. drunk (intoxicated)

• alkoholpåverkad
• berusad
• drucken
• onykter
• redlös (very drunk)
• salongsberusad (tipsy)
• stupfull (very drunk)
• överförfriskad (too drunk)

• handfull

• fylla

• baksmälla (“hangover”)
• däcka (“pass out”)
• nyktra till (“sober up”)

• full in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• full in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• full in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)