DOSSA-RI どっさり
Meanings
Describes a large quantity or number of things: a lot, loads, or heaps.
Examples
I still have loads of work left to get through.
父は出張から帰るといつもおみやげをどっさりと買ってきた。
Whenever my father came home from a business trip, he brought back heaps of souvenirs.
片付けなければならない仕事がどっさり残っている。
Dogmatic Opinion
DOSSA-RI means that there is a large quantity of something. It often evokes a visible mass: many things filling a bag or case, or a large amount piled or heaped on top of something—rather like an extra-large serving in a rice bowl.
It is not normally used for liquids. The image tends to require visible three-dimensional bulk. Even fifty different pieces of tiny Tirol Chocolate may not feel DOSSA-RI if their total volume is small. A mother can, however, come home with snacks DOSSA-RI because the many snack bags create visible bulk, and a seafood bowl can have salmon roe piled DOSSA-RI on top.
Even when the number is large, you would not normally look at a crowd and say that there are people DOSSA-RI. The word is generally not used for living creatures. In an extreme scene involving bodies piled up after war or an epidemic, however, such wording might become conceivable.
Compared with TAPPURI, DOSSA-RI more readily suggests a visually substantial mass gathered together—something you could almost imagine arriving or landing with a “dosa”.
Proximate Expression
plenty
Related Words
For Japanese Learners
Loads of, heaps of, a large amount of, and a pile of are common English equivalents. DOSSA-RI is especially natural when the quantity feels visibly bulky or heaped together. “宿題がどっさり出た” could be “I got loads of homework.” It is not simply a neutral synonym for “many.”
