handsbreadth means a small distance. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “handsbreadth” is a great word
HANDSBREADTH — [Noun] A traditional unit of measure equivalent to the width of a human hand, approximating three to four inches. From hand + -s- (possessive or associative) + breadth ("measurement from side to side"). Unlike *handspan* (which measures the maximal stretch from thumb to little finger) or *inch* (a rigid, abstracted standard), a handsbreadth is an intimate, variable gauge rooted in the measurer's own body. It is the craftsman judging the thickness of a stave, the perilous margin by which a car avoids a scrape, and the exact sliver of warm space between two sleeping cats—the small, mortal distances by which we first know the world and upon which our comfort precariously rests.
noun
- a small distance“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.”