stone's throw
10
2.3
- idiom
- /stoʊnz θroʊ/
:
a tiro de piedra
- She lives a stone's throw away from the park, so we often meet there for walks.
Examples
-
It's just a stone's throw from the ocean.
-
Every lot is a stone's throw from the station.
-
Oh, just a stone's throw from where we were staying.
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It's just a stone's throw away from the president himself.
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The church is a stone's throw away if you want to come to mass.
Fiction book (1996) -
A stone's throw from the river Thames.
-
A pet store opened up literally a stone's throw away from my house.
Blog text (20) -
Ajman is just a stone's throw from Dubai.
Blog text (1) -
And for two years, he's been living here in Algiers, within a stone's throw of your headquarters.
-
Its location is unbeatable, being a stone's throw from Russell Square underground station and the fashionable Brunswick Centre.
Blog text (28)
Synonyms
325
1.0
Close to a person, place, or thing
240
1.0
At a short distance in space or time
77
1.0
The distance covered by one foot when you walk
25
3.5
Very near to someone or something at a short distance
Antonyms
How Far
Surface Forms
Morphology
stone's + throw
The phrase literally evokes the distance one can throw a stone, so its meaning 'a short distance' can be directly inferred by a learner who knows 'stone' and 'throw'. This concrete physical metaphor is common across languages (e.g. Spanish 'a tiro de piedra'), making it immediately comprehensible to B1 learners without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrase stone's throw may come from the simple idea of throwing a stone to show how far you can throw it. If a place is only as far as that, it is very close, so the phrase means 'a short distance'.