Verst

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /vəːst/

Alternative forms

• werst

Origin

From Russian верста, partly through German Werst and French verste.

Full definition of verst

Noun

1. A Russian unit of length, equivalent to about 1.07 kilometres or about 2/3 of a mile.
• 1849, "The Observatory at Pulkowa" The North American Review Volume 0069 Issue 144 (July 1849):The hill Pulkowa, twelve miles (seventeen wersts) south of Admiralty Palace in St. Petersburg, ...
• 1910, ‘Saki’, "Reginald in Russia", Reginald in Russia: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.
• 1918, Aylmer and Louise Maude, trans. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Oxford 1998, p. 604:‘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.’
• 1988, Anthony Burgess, Any Old Iron:You have to tramp three or four versts to get to the exhibition of war loot, past Fabergé eggs and the Impressionists.

Anagrams

• trevs