Learn English – A volume of sand

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I want to describe a "volume(for lack of a better word)" of sand which was flung at someone. If it is thrown by hand, then it becomes a "handful of sand" but what if I use something else ? and the quantity is not a handful but more ?

e.g. The camel dug his limbs into the sand and that inadvertent motion flung a ______ of sand towards them.

It need not necessarily be a single word, but I could not find any other matching tag.

Best Answer

As suggested by John Lawler:

shower

  1. A fall of a group of objects, especially from the sky: a meteor shower; a shower of leaves. (thefreedictionary.com)

Your example:

The camel dug his hooves into the sand and inadvertently flung a shower of sand in our direction.

Alternatively:

As the camels galloped past, their hooves kicked up [or sprayed] a shower of sand and we had to shield our eyes.

Fun, short video of racing camels (you can see the little sprays of sand kicked up by each hoof): https://youtu.be/QogcOenbjM0

They have remote controlled mechanical jockeys!

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