cough and a spit noun2 •(UK, informal) A very short distance.[…] a Lancaster squadron at Bawne, west of Cambridge — it sits a cough and a spit from the Bedfordshire border. — 2009 •A minor role.Everybody gargling madly and mugging up their lines as though Shakespeare himself was out front. Don't know why I bothered, I only had a cough and a spit. — 1998
