Definition of "cloth-yard" []

• An old measure for cloth which differed somewhat in length from the modern yard. See yard. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "While he spoke, the damsel had selected from the arms a bow of extraordinary strength, considerably above six feet in length, with three shafts of a cloth-yard long."
• "He wars on Louis; whichever gains the better, I, who must be strengthened in their mutual weakness, receive the advantage — The Englishmen slay the French with their cloth-yard shafts, and the Frenchmen, by skirmishes, waste, weaken, and destroy the English."
• "Scot from the cloth-yard shaft, and he will keep himself from the handy stroke."