stonecast

English

Etymology

From stone +‎ cast.

Noun

stonecast (usually uncountable, plural stonecasts)

1. A short distance; a stone's throw.
   • 1835, Michael Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log:

     They passed beneath where we sat, and, when about a stonecast beyond, they all jumped into a trench or pit, which I had not noticed before, about twenty feet long, by eight wide.

   • 1890 February, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Strange Story of Jonathan Small”, in The Sign of Four (Standard Library), London: Spencer Blackett […], →OCLC, page 246:

     Brown, heavy clouds were drifting across the sky, and it was hard to see more than a stonecast.

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