plentiful - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English plentiful, plentyfull, plentefull, equivalent to plenty +‎ -ful.

plentiful (comparative plentifuller or plentifuler or more plentiful, superlative plentifullest or plentifulest or most plentiful)

  1. Existing in large number or ample amount.
    a plentiful harvest
    a plentiful supply of water
    She accumulated a plentiful collection of books.
    • 1997 March 30, Paula Budlong Cronin, “Unexpected Zanzibar”, in The New York Times‎[1], archived from the original on 6 September 2020:
      Most of the three- and four-story white-washed buildings that we passed were built of pink coraline, which is both plentiful and fractile, and date back centuries to when Omanis and Indians based on Zanzibar dominated the African East Coast trade.
  2. Yielding abundance; fruitful.
    Some years, the tree is a plentiful source of apples.
    • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
      If it be a long winter, it is commonly a more plentiful year.
  3. (obsolete) Lavish; profuse; prodigal.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Expense”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
      He that is plentiful in expenses will hardly be preserved from decay.

existing in large number

yelding abundance