Definition of "lapful"

The revelry from the tent grew at last so boisterous, the wailings and cries of help from the tower so terrible, that, unable to bear the heartrending emotion any longer, Queen Elizabeth stole forth alone, amid the darkness, to carry beneath the rich dalmatique she wore, a whole lapful of the millet loaves, crisp, russet and fresh baked, which had been just brought from the oven for the table of the King, and threw them to the famishing inmates of the tower.

1888 November 24, “Holy November. The Month of Miracles.”, in Charles Dickens [Jr.], editor, All the Year Round. A Weekly Journal., volume XLIII, number 1043, London: […], page 488