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

Blend of hand and breadth

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Examples

  • The lama brought his thousand-wrinkled face once more a handsbreadth from the Englishman's.

    Kim Rudyard Kipling 1900

  • The lama brought his thousand-wrinkled face once more a handsbreadth from the Englishman’s.

    Kim 2003

  • 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

  • They roared and bellowed within a handsbreadth of each other as they confronted the travelers.

    The Lives of Felix Gunderson Sugu Althomsons 2010

  • 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

  • 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

  • I remained with my face a handsbreadth from the ground while he asked questions.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • 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

  • I remained with my face a handsbreadth from the ground while he asked questions.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • 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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