[jmkb]

To me (native English a la USA) apples are in a sort of uncanny valley between things that could in fact be measured by the physical handful, like peanuts, and things that couldn't -- buildings being way off the charts, obviously.

[thaumasiotes]

Context will make the difference. If you say "grab a handful of apples", no one will believe you meant to say it, because that doesn't make any sense.

"There are a handful of apples" is a different usage, which people will accept.

[jmkb]

Well maybe. I've literally grabbed handfuls of wild apples, about the size of ping-pong balls.

(Maybe better described as feral apples? Old orchards with trees unpruned for decades.)

[staunch]

FYI: anyone eating wild apples should take care to avoid "beach apples" cause they're highly toxic.

https://www.google.com/search?q=beach+apple&source=lnms&tbm=...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel

[egypturnash]

Same. A single apple, as found in the grocery store, is about one handful. Once you start talking about things much bigger than what an average human hand can hold then "a handful" does work as a synonym for "a few things" - probably less than ten.

[fbdab103]

>..."a few things" - probably less than ten.

Now those are fighting words. "A few" is obviously 3-5, six in a dire emergency.

[derefr]

I feel like, when talking about things which you'd usually expect in large quantity, "a few" means "any less than makes a pile."

E.g. for grains of rice, even 23 or so of them could still constitute "a few grains stuck to the sides of the bowl."

Similarly, in databases, "a few rows" is any amount that's not Big Data ;)

[rayiner]

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=A%20couple%2...

[DonHopkins]

While "a handful of testicles" means exactly two.

https://twitter.com/jimmykimmel/status/327276064009240577?la...