fangful

From fang +‎ -ful (“possessing”).

fangful (comparative more fangful, superlative most fangful)

1. Having sharp or menacing fangs.

   Synonyms: fangsome, fangy

   • 1893, Dante Alighieri, translated by George Musgrave, The Divine Comedy‎^[1], page 37:

     Cerberus, soon as our adit he espied,
     Quivering in every limb for anger, wide
     Opened his fangful mouths, and at us gnasht.

   • 1982, David Hazard, “The Tale of a Bird”, in Stories, Songs, and Poems from The Peaceable Kingdom‎^[2], page 26:

     The cat was curled in a soft armchair close by the fire. She yawned a fangful yawn, stretched her claws and sat up.

   • 1989, L. Sprague de Camp, The Honorable Barbarian‎^[3], page 45:

     As Kerin came abreast of the reptile, the lizard opened its eyes, looked around, and rose on stumpy legs. It swiveled about to face Kerin, scattering sand; it opened fangful jaws and hissed like a kettle.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:fangful.
2. (idiomatic) Cruel or venomous.
   • 1872, Casca Llanna, Love, Woman, Marriage: The Grand Secret!‎^[4], page 283:

     Such a woman's affectional demonstrations, if not wholly vampiral, would be a wide departure from the truth ; would not be really human, but snakish, fangful, Judas-like, because utterly and wholly empty of all genuine heartness, that ineffable delight man sighs for and expects.

   • 1913, John Galen Howard, Brunelleschi: A Poem‎^[5], page 73:

     That have lookt forward to a dawning sweet,
     Upon my tongue they have been bitter. Oh,
     I drained the cup of scorn in those old days
     When laughter and detraction followed me
     From fangful packs of snarlers, e'er and aye

   • 2006, Ernestine D. Harris, Dancing with Fireflies‎^[6], page 122:

     Often the Crane Dame and a few others like her were fangful, seemingly garbed in witches' outfits and spitting venom whenever I was in their presence.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:fangful.

From fang +‎ -ful (“suffix forming nouns denoting an amount”).

fangful (plural fangfuls)

1. An amount (of venom) sufficient to fill a fang.
   • 1986, Bhabani Bhattacharya, A Goddess Named Gold‎^[7], page 21:

     With a howl of pain he grabbed the evil thing by the tail before it could sneak away. A big black cobra with its fangful of venom.

   • 2020, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, A Secret of Birds & Bone‎^[8], unnumbered page:

     She lunged then, faster than Orsa had, something black and terrible in her face like a serpent about to unleash a fangful of venom.

   • 2021, Brian Staveley, The Empire's Ruin‎^[9], unnumbered page:

     Not long after that, something fast and cool plunged a fangful of venom into his wrist, then slipped over the side of the boat with a gentle plop before he could get a good look at it.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:fangful.
2. An amount sufficient to fill a fanged creature's mouth.
   • 1998, Steve Sherman, Julia Older, “On the Appalachian Trail”, in Michael P. Branch, Daniel J. Philippon, editors, The Height of Our Mountains: Nature Writing from Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley‎^[10], page 302:

     We heard how two copperheads line each side of the Frail to bite hikers as they pass, assuring at least one of the snakes a fangful.

   • 2010, Carole Nelson Douglas, Silver Zombie‎^[11], page 349:

     And down the dark and twisting clouds came a foggy stream of running wolves with luminous eyes, Quicksilver at their forefront, snapping at the head of the Wendigo, biting it away in airy fangfuls.

   • 2015, Claire Barker, Ghost Dog‎^[12], page 65:

     Looking shiftily about, her eight eyes glittering like pewter sequins, she grabbed a fangful of crumbs.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:fangful.