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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



... rigorous were the operations of the censorship set up by the British War Office. One thing is certain, however: in both countries political conditions were serious before the war and they could not, by any stretch of optimism, be conceived as improving with the coming of a great struggle aimed at the ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of VIII) - History of the European War from Official Sources • Various
... taken as twenty-four hours, man's existence on earth so far equals just two seconds of it; after a few more seconds, when man has been frozen off the earth, geological time will stretch for as long again, before the earth bumps into something, and be comes nebula once more. God's hands haven't been particularly full, sir, have they— two seconds out of twenty-four hours—if man is ...
— Quotations from the Works of John Galsworthy • David Widger
... squirrel fashion with the feet, by punting it as one would a canoe; to be skillful in pushing, prying, and poling other logs from the quarter deck of the same cranky craft; as he must be prepared at any and all times to jump waist deep into the river, to work in ice-water hours at a stretch; as he was called upon to break the most dangerous jams on the river, representing, as they did, the accumulation which the jam crew had left behind them, it was naturally considered the height of glory to belong to the rear crew. Here were the best of the Fighting Forty,—men with a reputation ...
— The Blazed Trail • Stewart Edward White
... you to stretch that time limit a little," said Dunne, smiling as if York were an old friend. "Let me start at the beginning, and then I won't have to go back. I live down on the Coldstream, on the line of the old Prairie Southern, which you acquired ...
— Desert Conquest - or, Precious Waters • A. M. Chisholm
... to stretch his legs before mounting again, and as he stood up he heard running footsteps somewhere beyond the house: they died away; but then came the sound of another runner, and of another, and he heard voices ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson


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