Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
handbreadth .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun any unit of length based on the breadth of the human hand.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a small
distance
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun any unit of length based on the breadth of the human hand
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The lama brought his thousand-wrinkled face once more a handsbreadth from the Englishman's.
Kim Rudyard Kipling 1900
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The lama brought his thousand-wrinkled face once more a handsbreadth from the Englishman’s.
Kim 2003
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Albric slid his sword a handsbreadth from the scabbard, and the ghouls hissed at the sight of steel.
THE RIVER KINGS’ ROAD Liane Merciel 2010
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They roared and bellowed within a handsbreadth of each other as they confronted the travelers.
The Lives of Felix Gunderson Sugu Althomsons 2010
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It is a hadith qudsi, which Muslim scholars translate as a divine saying revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad: "And if [my servant] draws nearer to me by a handsbreadth; I draw nearer to him by an armslength; and if he draws nearer to me by an armslength, I draw nearer to him by a fathom; and if he comes to me walking, I come to him running."
Rev. James Martin, S.J.: Want to Experience God? You Already Have: Vulnerability 2010
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Using a heavy piece of bark as a spade, he dug into the earth between the tree roots until he had excavated a shallow little hollow two handsbreadth across and perhaps eight inches deep.
Wicked Will Bailey MacDonald 2009
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I remained with my face a handsbreadth from the ground while he asked questions.
Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009
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With my failing right eye I saw dark loam, and my hands pushing something deep into it, some kind of white seeds that I planted a handsbreadth apart.
Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009
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I remained with my face a handsbreadth from the ground while he asked questions.
Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009
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With my failing right eye I saw dark loam, and my hands pushing something deep into it, some kind of white seeds that I planted a handsbreadth apart.
Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009
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