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Definition of "half-length" []

  • A portrait that shows only the upper half and hands of a person. (noun)
  • Of or relating to a half-length portrait. (adjective)
  • Of half the full length. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "half-length" in a sentence
  • "A splendidly robotic half-length shows a bare-headed Cosimo right-side-on in state-of-the art armour; 25 versions exist – a small army."
  • "Originally made as a three-part series for French TV, it is five-and-a-half hours long in its full form (though a half-length feature is also on release in the UK), exhaustively researched and often exhilarating to watch, as we track the fledgling revolutionary, charmingly portrayed by Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramírez, through countless countries, attacks, hijackings and escapes, to his eventual arrest in Sudan in 1994."
  • "(AP) Tanda beat Switch by a half-length Sunday in the $100,000 Railbird Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Hollywood Park."