How many is a few?

[OverpricedCupcake]

Just that really?
I always thought it was more than two, as then you'd say, a couple, right, but not many, so three or four?
I see things such as, a few drinks, a few sweets, I've been to Spain a few times.
Does it actually mean two and I'm wrong?

3-5? Certainly in the low single digits for me.

I’d say a few means 3 or 4 maybe 5 but no more.

I think it can be context-specifuc. So if you've only got 50 people in a venue thst can take over a thousand, that would be a few, especially if they're spread out, rather than clustered together.

Single figures (but more than 2) is often going to be a good guide though.

Definitely not 2. I’d say 3/4/5 then anything more than that is ‘several’

This is what I thought.
Thank you, I'm not going mad.

I don't follow how your examples tie in with it being two, am I miss reading somehow?

Obviously there's a dictionary definition but that doesn't mean that some people in some instances won't use it to mean two.

I think a few sometimes means you don't really want to say how many. As in sweets and drinks.

I think something like holidays if you said you'd been somewhere a few times I'd assume maybe four or five, or under ten basically. I'd say ten plus you'd probably say 'quite a few/ lots'.
It's kind of dependent on how well travelled someone is maybe as well.

Two is definitely a couple, a few is 3+

4-6 people would be my guess but the context would help.

I always think of a few as being 3. More than that, 4 or 5.

A few's a deliberately vague number, more than two and less than might be expected. Because it's vague, it can also be ironic as in "He'd had a few drinks" and "I've shagged quite a few footballers".

Also see some, many, several and not many.

Did you know that some dead languages, and at least one living one, had no words for more than two? The only number concepts seem to have been less and more. Must have made business deals interesting.