handbreadth
- noun
- /ˈhændˌbrɛdθ/
- Archaic
:
palmo
- The shelf is a handbreadth deep, which is enough space for a few books.
Examples
-
The water was now aglitter with topaz highlights from a sun that stood a handbreadth above the horizon.
Fiction book (1998) -
I can't help it if you go faster than I do, but I swear, I'm going to beat you to within a handbreadth of your life!
Fiction book (1992) -
It was a handbreadth thick, and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup...
Blog text (15) -
They were more than a handbreadth wide and creaked pleasantly under his tread.
Fiction book (1999) -
Its thickness was a handbreadth; its brim was made like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily; it held two thousand baths.
Blog text (29) -
The fabric was cut to a handbreadth width to fit the sewing pattern.
-
He measured the table, and it was a handbreadth longer than the one in the catalog.
Synonyms
12
9.7
An old unit of length based on the width of a person's hand
11
9.8
An old measure of length about nine inches based on the width of a hand
1
5.0
The distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger when the hand is spread
The width of a hand used as a rough measure of about 8 to 10 cm
How Long
- Specialized
621
1.0
∞
1.0
∞
1.0
- Archaic
∞
1.0
- US
92
1.0
- Specialized
140
2.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
The word handbreadth comes from the two simple parts hand and breadth, where breadth means 'width'. It originally meant the 'width of a hand' that people used to measure small distances in the past, so today it still means a short distance or a small space.