Meaning of handsbreadth | Babel Free

Definitions

a small distance

Examples

“The provinces of Holland and Zealand were stanch and true, but the inequality of the contest between a few brave men, upon that handsbreadth of territory, and the powerful Spanish Empire, seemed to render the issue⟳ hopeless.”

“As a child, having thrust away the mother's guiding hand and hidden its face⟳ against the wall, may fancy itself alone and forgotten, until, turning with a cry⟳, it finds around it the protecting mother-arms that were never but a handsbreadth away; so does man in his wilfulness push⟳ away the shielding arms of the divine Mother of the worlds, only to find⟳, when he turns back his face⟳, that he has never been outside their protecting shelter⟳, and that wherever he may wander⟳ that guarding love⟳ is round him still.”

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