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Stretch   /strɛtʃ/   Listen
verb
Stretch  v. t.  (past & past part. stretched; pres. part. stretching)  
1.
To reach out; to extend; to put forth. "And stretch forth his neck long and small." "I in conquest stretched mine arm."
2.
To draw out to the full length; to cause to extend in a straight line; as, to stretch a cord or rope.
3.
To cause to extend in breadth; to spread; to expand; as, to stretch cloth; to stretch the wings.
4.
To make tense; to tighten; to distend forcibly. "The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain."
5.
To draw or pull out to greater length; to strain; as, to stretch a tendon or muscle. "Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve."
6.
To exaggerate; to extend too far; as, to stretch the truth; to stretch one's credit. "They take up, one day, the most violent and stretched prerogative."


Stretch  v. i.  
1.
To be extended; to be drawn out in length or in breadth, or both; to spread; to reach; as, the iron road stretches across the continent; the lake stretches over fifty square miles. "As far as stretcheth any ground."
2.
To extend or spread one's self, or one's limbs; as, the lazy man yawns and stretches.
3.
To be extended, or to bear extension, without breaking, as elastic or ductile substances. "The inner membrane... because it would stretch and yield, remained umbroken."
4.
To strain the truth; to exaggerate; as, a man apt to stretch in his report of facts. (Obs. or Colloq.)
5.
(Naut.) To sail by the wind under press of canvas; as, the ship stretched to the eastward.
Stretch out, an order to rowers to extend themselves forward in dipping the oar.


noun
Stretch  n.  
1.
Act of stretching, or state of being stretched; reach; effort; struggle; strain; as, a stretch of the limbs; a stretch of the imagination. "By stretch of arms the distant shore to gain." "Those put a lawful authority upon the stretch, to the abuse of yower, under the color of prerogative."
2.
A continuous line or surface; a continuous space of time; as, grassy stretches of land. "A great stretch of cultivated country." "But all of them left me a week at a stretch."
3.
The extent to which anything may be stretched. "Quotations, in their utmost stretch, can signify no more than that Luther lay under severe agonies of mind." "This is the utmost stretch that nature can."
4.
(Naut.) The reach or extent of a vessel's progress on one tack; a tack or board.
5.
Course; direction; as, the stretch of seams of coal.
To be on the stretch, to be obliged to use one's utmost powers.
Home stretch. See under Home, a.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Stretch" Quotes from Famous Books



... rapidly through the morass, and came to the farther end of it, where a sluggish burn discharges, and the path for Hermiston accompanies it on the beginning of its downward way. From this corner a wide view was opened to her of the whole stretch of braes upon the other side, still sallow and in places rusty with the winter, with the path marked boldly, here and there by the burn-side a tuft of birches, and—two miles off as the crow flies—from its enclosures and young ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XIX (of 25) - The Ebb-Tide; Weir of Hermiston • Robert Louis Stevenson
... also able to prepare and support the attack on Cingolo Neck and Monte Cristo Ridge. Cingolo Ridge itself, however, was almost beyond their reach. Lyttelton's Division with Wynne's Fusilier Brigade was to stretch out to the eastward and, by a wide turning movement pivoting on the guns and Barton's Brigade, attack the Cingolo Ridge. Dundonald's Cavalry Brigade was to make a far wider detour and climb up the end of the ridge, ...
— London to Ladysmith via Pretoria • Winston Spencer Churchill
... "We have eternity to stretch our legs in," replied the mystic. "It can be an infinity of things. I haven't seen any of them—I've only seen the letter. I look at that, and say it's ...
— The Club of Queer Trades • G. K. Chesterton
... some water found, But in a vessel so profound, That with her neck at utmost stretch, A single drop she could not reach. Then stones she in the pitcher places, Which to the top the water raises; And by this innocent device Her thirst ...
— Aesop, in Rhyme - Old Friends in a New Dress • Marmaduke Park
... and more troops from the Amur districts. They say, too, that the French have crossed the Tonkin frontier. But really accurately we know nothing very much of what is being done. With sixty or seventy thousand soldiery suddenly flung down on the ruined stretch of country between Peking and the sea, everything has been put in the most horrible confusion. You can get nothing, nor hear anything. Telegrams are the only things which are coming through with any regularity, and even these are ...
— Indiscreet Letters From Peking • B. L. Putman Weale


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