verst

plural versts · alternative versta · alternative verste · alternative werst

1. A Russian unit of length, equivalent to about 1.07 kilometres or about ²⁄₃ of a mile.

   |The hill Pulkowa, twelve miles (seventeen wersts) south of Admiralty Palace in St. Petersburg, […]

   1849, "The Observatory at Pulkowa" The North American Review Volume 0069 Issue 144 (July 1849)

   3 more examples

   Her particular part of the country was a few hundred versts the other side of Tamboff, with some fifteen miles of agrarian disturbance between her and the nearest neighbour.

   1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “Reginald in Russia”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 6

   ‘Is it much further, Michael?’ she asked the clerk, to dispel the thoughts that frightened her. ‘They say it's seven versts from this village.’

   1918, Aylmer and Louise Maude, translated by Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Oxford, published 1998, page 604

   You have to tramp three or four versts to get to the exhibition of war loot, past Fabergé eggs and the Impressionists.

   1988, Anthony Burgess, Any Old Iron