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hand's-breadth

British  

noun

  1. another name for handbreadth

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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“Every little pebble was distinct, every speckled trout, every hand’s-breadth of sand,” Mark Twain wrote of his unimpeded glimpse into Lake Tahoe’s depths in “Roughing It.”

From New York Times • Jan. 14, 2013

No eye can venture to compass more than a hand's-breadth.

From Time Magazine Archive

I have a bed which is about a hand's-breadth wide .

From Time Magazine Archive

The men wear wide linen trousers, and over them a shirt confined by a girdle, with a sleeveless woollen jacket, made of stuff of only a hand’s-breadth wide, and sewed together. 

From The Story of Ida Pfeiffer and Her Travels in Many Lands by Anonymous

The dark foliage shuts out the light; scarcely a hand's-breadth of blue sky can be seen among the branches overhead.

From 'O Thou, My Austria!' by Schubin, Ossip