stretch

An act of stretching.

Noun

  1. An act of stretching.
    • I was right in the middle of a stretch when the phone rang.
  2. The ability to lengthen when pulled.
    • That rubber band has quite a bit of stretch.
  3. A course of thought which diverts from straightforward logic, or requires extraordinary belief or exaggeration.
    • It's a bit of a stretch to call Boris Karloff a comedian.
    • To say crossing the street was brave was quite a stretch.
  4. A segment of a journey or route.
    • It was an easy trip except for the last stretch, which took forever.
    • It's a tough stretch of road in the winter, especially without chains.
  5. A segment or length of material.
    • a stretch of cloth
  6. A walk.
    • In the afternoon I went for a stretch into the country, & about 4 it cleared up pretty well, so I hurried back & we got a cart & drove to Bassano, a little town about 8 miles off, that we wanted to see. - a. 1941,...
  7. A quick pitching delivery used when runners are on base where the pitcher slides his leg instead of lifting it.
  8. A long reach in the direction of the ball with a foot remaining on the base by a first baseman in order to catch the ball sooner.
  9. Term of address for a tall person.
    • “Hey, Stretch,” he shouted at a tall, spectacled co-worker, “turn the fucking station, will you? You know I can't stand Rush, and it's all they play on this one. If I hear those assholes whine 'Tom Sawyer' one more...
    • Amelia: I mean, you're already a dwarf. Gura: Oh, OK, Stretch. - 2024 February 10, Amelia Watson, Gawr Gura, 2:46:24 from the start, in 【Deep Rock Galactic】yoooooooooo (YouTube live stream):
  10. The homestretch, the final straight section of the track leading to the finish.
  11. A length of time.
    • After the harvest there was a stretch of clear dry weather, and the animals toiled harder than ever […] - 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur...

    1. (Ireland) Extended daylight hours, especially said of the evening in springtime when compared to the shorter winter days.

      • There is a grand stretch in the evenings.

    2. (sports) The period of the season between the trade deadline and the beginning of the playoffs.

      • The '42 Cardinals are best known for their amazing stretch run. St. Louis won 43 of their last 51 games and came back from a double-digit deficit in games in early August to edge out the Dodgers for the N.L. flag. -...

    3. (slang) A jail or prison term.

      • "Of course, if Cripps likes to stay here and do a stretch for burglary, well and good." - 1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 132:
      • He did a seven-year stretch in jail.

      Synonyms: stint

    4. (slang) A jail or prison term.

      (slang) A jail or prison term of one year's duration.

      Synonyms: stint

    5. A single uninterrupted sitting; a turn.

  12. Ellipsis of stretch limousine.

Origin

From Middle English strecchen, from Old English streċċan (“to stretch, hold out, extend, spread out, prostrate”), from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan (“to stretch, make taut or tight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg-, *streg-, *treg- (“stiff, rigid”). Cognate with West Frisian strekke, Dutch strekken (“to stretch, straighten”), German strecken (“to stretch, straighten, elongate”), Danish strække (“to stretch”), Swedish sträcka (“to stretch”), Dutch strak (“taut, tight”), Albanian shtriqem (“to stretch”). More at stark.

Forms

stretches strech stremtch

Derived

antistretch astretch at a stretch at full stretch backstretch brand stretch by a long stretch by any stretch by any stretch of the imagination by no stretch by no stretch of imagination by no stretch of the imagination cat stretch electrostretch final stretch forestretch frontstretch full-stretch home stretch hyperstretch mechanostretch microstretch midstretch nonstretch

Verb

  1. To lengthen by pulling.
    • I stretched the rubber band until it almost broke.
  2. To lengthen when pulled.
    • The rubber band stretched almost to the breaking point.
    • The inner membrane […] because it would stretch and yield, remained unbroken. - 1659 December 30 (date written), Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and Its Effects […],...
  3. To pull tight.
    • First, stretch the skin over the frame of the drum.
  4. To extend one’s limbs or another part of the body, for example in order to improve the elasticity of one's muscles.
    • I always stretch my muscles before exercising.
    • When the cat woke up, it yawned and stretched.
  5. To extend physically, especially from a limit point and/or to a limit point.
    • The beach stretches from Cresswell to Amble.
    • Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and...
    • Behind them, stretching in a long line east and west, were the Roan and Book Cliffs, cut to their base by the river's gorge, and meandering away in long wavy lines distorted by heat haze and the smoke of forest fires. -...
  6. To get more use than expected from a limited resource.
    • I managed to stretch my coffee supply a few more days.
  7. To make inaccurate by exaggeration.
    • To say crossing the street was brave is stretching the meaning of "brave" considerably.
    • To say he's been to this park a million times is stretching the numbers. The true number is around 30 or 40.

    Synonyms: hyperbolize overemphasize overstate big up cut it fat exaggerate overcharge overdo play up stretch three-sheet

  8. To make great demands on the capacity or resources of something.
    • Her bizarre explanation really stretches credulity.
    • By the fullest exploitation of modern signalling, multiple-unit operation and flying and burrowing junctions the S.R. has greatly increased the capacity of its tracks to carry this growing load of peak-hour passengers,...
  9. To increase.
    • Yakubu took advantage of John Ruddy's error to put the visitors back in front, with Chris Samba's header stretching their advantage. - 2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3-3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport:
  10. To increase, to grow.
    • As I sat in the waiting room, the minutes stretched into hours.
    • Unless we rekindle our communication skills, the 2020s "loneliness epidemic" could stretch into a "solitary century." - 2025 December 9, Rachel Konrad and Matt Abrahams, “Why Young People Are Struggling to Communicate”,...
  11. To sail by the wind under press of canvas.
    • The ship stretched to the eastward.
  12. To make a pulse or particle bunch longer by applying dispersion to it.
    • Diffraction gratings are by far the most common elements used to stretch and compress pulses because of their substantial angular dispersion, […] - 2019, B. Webb et al., “Simulation of grating compressor misalignment...

    Antonyms: compress

Forms

stretches stretching stretched straught straight strech stremtch

Related

pandiculate