swordslength

English

Etymology

From sword +‎ -s- +‎ length.

Noun

swordslength (plural swordslengths)

1. Alternative form of swordlength.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 1994, Joel Rosenberg, Hour of the Octopus, New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, pages 34 and 234–235:

     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.

   • 2005, Robert Carter, The Giants’ Dance (The Language of Stones; book two), HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, page 398:

     Another attack swept them together before they clashed then whirled away again to the safety of two swordslengths.

Anagrams

• swordlengths