Some parts of the regulations refer to them as any flight more than 3nm away from the departure AD. Some other regulations refer to them as any flight from a point of departure to a point of arrival using standard navigation techniques, without saying if departure and arrival must be two different places.
WRONG! No part of any regulation refers to 3nm from the departure aerodrome in relation to a cross-country flight for licensing purposes. This is a popular misconception resulting from taking a small part of the UK ANO (relating to a non-EASA qualification) entirely out of context.
The definition of a cross-country flight is, simply, "a flight between a point of departure and a point of arrival following a pre-planned route, using standard navigation procedures" (FCL.010). Nothing in that definition requires the point of departure to be different from the point of arrival, or for the flight to cover a particular distance or to last for a particular time or, come to that, that the pilot wears a particular colour of underwear! Why do people continue to insist on making the requirements more complicated than they already are?
Since none of us knows how much of the 140 hours referred to in the OP's post was PIC (as opposed to solo) might it not be better to obtain the facts before taking up the usual entrenched positions?