Dictionary

swordslength en · NOUN

Etymology

From sword + -s- + length.

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of swordlength.
   alt of swordlength
   • Another attack swept them together before they clashed then whirled away again to the safety of two swordslengths. 2005, Robert Carter, The Giants’ Dance (The Language of Stones; book two), HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, page 398:
   • Minch’s bodyguard strode up to Dun Lidjun, his sandals slipping on the loose stones—that is, after all, why the road outside the entrance is gravelly—stopping insolently close to Dun Lidjun, less than a swordslength away. […] With Dun Lidjun within a swordslength of Arefai, brute force would fail. 1994, Joel Rosenberg, Hour of the Octopus, New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, pages 34 and 234–235:
   • By way of testing the courage of the surrounding manhood, Tomaso made a feinting stomp with one foot, as one does in fence, and the forty men jumped back a swordslength. 1956, Tiffany Thayer, Tiffany Thayer’s Mona Lisa: I. The Prince of Taranto, volume 2, New York, N.Y.: The Dial Press, →LCCN, page 426:

Forms