What does chockful mean?
Chockful is an informal adjective meaning completely filled or packed to capacity. A room can be chockful of furniture, a day chockful of appointments, or a book chockful of useful advice — the word always conveys abundance pressed to its limit, often with a hint of cheerful excess rather than mere crowding. It functions almost exclusively alongside the preposition "of," as in "chockful of ideas," and appears both before nouns and after linking verbs. The word is a variant spelling of "chock-full," which remains the more common form in modern English, though both are widely accepted; consistency within a piece of writing is the usual editorial guidance. The element "chock" likely traces back through Middle English to an Old French root meaning to strike or thrust, giving the compound a vivid sense of being crammed so tightly that nothing more could be forced in. For everyday speech and lively prose alike, chockful offers a punchy, emphatic alternative to plain words like "full."
adjectiveCompletely filled or packed to capacity; stuffed as full as possible.
- Completely filled or packed to capacity with people or things.
"The attic was chockful of boxes that hadn't been opened in decades."
"The theater was chockful for opening night."
"Her schedule is chockful of meetings until Friday."
It's a two-syllable word that means "as full as physically possible" — and it's just one spelling away from its more common twin, "chock-full."
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of chockful
Chockful combines "chock," a Middle English adverbial element meaning entirely or quite, with "full." The word "chock" itself probably derives from Old French "choquier" (to strike or thrust), which also gave English the noun "chock" (a wedge) and is related to the word "shock." The compound emerged by the early modern period and has long coexisted with the hyphenated variant "chock-full," which is now the dominant spelling.
Related word forms
How chockful is actually used
"Chockful" is an informal, slightly less common variant of the far more frequent "chock-full." Both are acceptable, but writers should choose one form and use it consistently; style guides often prefer "chock-full." It typically appears predicatively or attributively followed by "of."
Easily confused with chockful
"Chock" is a wedge used to stop movement (as in "chock the wheels"), while "chockful" is an adjective meaning completely filled.