Noun: handbreadth
| Singular | handbreadth |
| Plural | handbreadths |
Sample Sentences
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Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: [1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalm 39:5:]
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[…] I saw the library casement open a handbreadth; I knew I might be watched thence; so I went apart into the orchard. [1847, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter XXIII, in Jane Eyre, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:]
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She followed him into the scullery, and combed her hair before the handbreadth of mirror by the back door. [1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 14, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Gutenberg edition, [Florence, Italy]: [ […] Tipografia Giuntina, […]], →OCLC; republished as Lady Chatterley’s Lover (eBook no. 0100181h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, August 2011, archived from the original on 11 Nov 2020:]
Nouns inflected like handbreadth
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
Alteration (due to breadth) of Middle English handbrede, hondbrede (“handbreadth”); equivalent to hand + breadth. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Houndebratte (“handbreadth”), West Frisian hânbreedte (“handbreadth”), Dutch handbreedte (“handbreadth”), German Handbreite (“handbreadth”) and Handbreit, Swedish handsbredd (“handbreadth”), Norwegian håndsbredd (“handbreadth”), Icelandic handbreidd (“handbreadth”). See: Middle English Nouns '
handbrede', Dutch Nouns '
handbreedte', German Nouns '
Handbreite'.
Verbs referencing "handbreadth"
German Nouns
Handbreite, Dutch Nouns
handbreedte.