The phrase "a handful of empty" is not correct and lacks clarity in written English.
It may be intended to describe a small quantity of something that is empty, but it requires additional context to be meaningful.
Example: "After the party, I found a handful of empty bottles scattered around the yard."
Alternatives: "a few empty" or "a small number of empty".
The only cemetery has but a handful of empty burial spaces.
On Wednesday, there were a handful of empty premium seats, but no empty rows that were often visible during the regular season.
In one chapter, Mr. Miller writes: The truth of the matter is that China is not building too many apartments, and a handful of empty urban districts are not evidence of a giant property bubble.
While everyone suspects that there might be a handful of empty Broadway theaters in the spring, at the moment the big theaters are still largely booked, and most nonprofits have finished their fund-raising for this fiscal year.
On Wednesday morning, all that was left of the city's Confederate monuments were a handful of empty pedestals.
After a shoot when all the rest of the crew were fast asleep, I'd tiptoe into the hotel corridor with a handful of coins and empty the vending machine, or walk out into the dark night to buy supplies for a binge.
Tianlong's birds were transported away from the market's location in south-west Beijing, leaving a handful of stalls offering empty cages and birdseed.
Only a handful of orchestra seats sat empty.
He has given up merely a handful of missiles, a few empty chemical warheads and (most recently) an undeclared unmanned aircraft.
Marooned in a sea of empty desks, a handful of slightly wan-faced people sit quietly in the corner of a large, mainly dark and otherwise entirely deserted office in Shepherd's Bush, west London.
"I urge District Attorney Cyrus Vance not to drop the case but to pursue truth and justice and let the chips fall where they may," Mr. Daughtry told a handful of reporters in an otherwise empty house.
