Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. Aus./N.Z.) a sufficiency, quite as much of anything as one wants or cares to take; often as have a gutful.

1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 18 May 3/7: I ’ad ten pints o’ beer, an,’ bli’me, I do believe I could ’a’ ’ad a square gutful if I’d a liked.
1923		E. Hemingway letter 29 Jan. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 78: I understand you are having a gutfull of Rapallo.
1929		Western Mail (Perth) 20 June 10/2: This isn’t living. It was all right for a time, perhaps, but I’ve had a gutsful.
1931		‘William Hatfield’ Sheepmates 245: They’ll [...] get a gutful o’ gallopin’ an’ start booin’ around lookin’ for the fool scrubber that started ’em orf.
1939		J. Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath (1951) 322: I ain’t had a good gutful to eat in two weeks.
1946		A. Marshall ‘Cardiac’ in Tell Us About the Turkey, Jo 33: I got a gutful of gas at that bloody war.
1946		Argus (Melbourne) 16 Mar. 23/1: I’ve had a gutsful. I’m asking for something different now.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 318: The boys have had a gutful of this. You know what they thought of the last performance.
1950		J. Morrison Port of Call 56: Ain’t you ’ad a gutsful of er?
1959		D. Niland Gold in the Streets (1966) 140: Reckons he’s had a gutful already, and he’s only been here a coupla days.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 243: Well it’s all a lot of slop – and I’ve had a gutful, right up to there.
1969		Dave Jordan ‘Gutboard Blues’ 🎵 I’ve had a gutsful of guts. I’m tellin’ you true, / I don’t think I could stomach one more ewe.
1972		Dominion (Wellington) 11 Sept. n.p.: 4 The former Speaker Sir Roy Jack, was not to be mistaken for his meaning when he said he had had a ‘gutsful’ of demonstrations [DNZE].
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 212: I was absolutely fed up with jail. I’d been in nearly four and a half years, and I’d had a gutsful.
1989		J. Hibberd Memoirs of an Old Bastard 144: Get out of my life, Goldilocks. I’ve had a gutful of men, right up to the crop.
1994		J. O’Connor Secret World of the Irish Male (1995) 123: They cannot tell you they love you until they have a gut-full of Jack Daniels.
1999		posting at Sharechat (N.Z.) 30 Sept. 🌐 So, I’ve now officially had a gutsful of the managed funds industry – its buying my own shares on the NZ stock exchange, plus investing overseas through UK Investment Trusts, for me from now on!
2000		S. Maloney Big Ask 76: I’m not the only one who’s had a gutful.
2002		Nick Smith MP (N.Z.) Sun. News column 2 June 🌐 New Zealanders have had a gutsful of the muggings and murders of their fellow citizens. They are angry that the Government has ignored the 92% who voted for tougher penalties.