reach
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: rēch
ipa: /ɹiːt͡ʃ/
rhymes: -iːtʃ
homophone: reech
Forms: form: reaches
form: reaching
form: reached
form: reached
form: raught
form: raught
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: reach
form: reach
form: reached
form: raught
form: rought
form: reach
form: reachest
form: reached
form: reachedst
form: raught
form: rought
form: reaches
form: reacheth
form: reached
form: raught
form: rought
form: reach
form: reached
form: raught
form: rought
form: reach
form: reached
form: raught
form: rought
form: reach
form: -
form: reaching
form: reached
form: raught
form: rought
Etymology: From Middle English rechen, from Old English rǣċan (“to reach”), from Proto-West Germanic *raikijan, from Proto-Germanic *raikijaną, from the Proto-Indo-European *Hreyǵ- (“to bind, reach”).
Senses: examples: text: He reached for a weapon that was on the table.
text: He reached for his shoe with his legs.
glosses: To extend, stretch, or thrust out (for example a limb or object held in the hand).
examples: text: to reach someone a book
glosses: To give to someone by stretching out a limb, especially the hand; to give with the hand; to pass to another person; to hand over.
glosses: To stretch out the hand.
examples: text: to reach an object with the hand, or with a spear
text: “I can't quite reach the pepper. Could you pass it to me?”
text: The gun was stored in a small box on a high closet shelf, but the boy managed to reach it by climbing on other boxes.
glosses: To attain or obtain by stretching forth the hand; to extend some part of the body, or something held, so as to touch, strike, grasp, etc.
examples: text: His bullet reached its intended target.
glosses: To strike or touch.
raw_tags: of a missile
examples: text: A few words, lovingly, encouragingly spoken failed to reach her heart.
ref: 1889, The Kindergarten-Primary Magazine, volume 1, page 119:
text: Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: To extend an action, effort, or influence to; to penetrate to; to pierce, or cut.
examples: text: his hand reaches the river
text: When the forest reaches the river, you will be able to rest.
text: Thy desire […] leads to no excess / That reaches blame.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Patent filings for neural networks grew at a rate of 46 percent from 2013 to 2016, reaching 6,506, the study found.
ref: 2019 February 3, “UN Study: China, US, Japan Lead World AI Development”, in Voice of America, archived from the original on 07 Feb 2019:
glosses: To extend to; to stretch out as far as; to touch by virtue of extent.
examples: text: After three years, he reached the position of manager.
text: The climbers reached the top of the mountain after a gruelling ten-day hike.
text: I am very Senſible, the beſt accounts of the Appearances of Nature (in any ſingle Inſtance hovv minute or ſimple ſoever) Humane Penetration can reach, comes infinitely ſhort of its reality, and internal Conſtitution; for vvho can ſearch out the Almighty, or his vvorks to Perfection.
ref: 1715, George Cheyne, “The Preface”, in Philosophical Principles of Religion: Natural and Revealed: […] Philosophical Principles of Natural Religion. Part I. […], 2nd edition, London: […] George Strahan […], →OCLC:
text: But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,[…]. By the time we reached the house we were thanking our stars she had come. Mrs. Cooke came out from under the port-cochere to welcome her.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: On the trip out our car was full of railway workers, going out to work on the Lanchow-Sinkiang Railway which had already reached Yumen, China’s biggest oil field, and in 1960 will connect with the Soviet Union’s Turkestan-Siberia Railway; or to the Lanchow-Yinchuan section, which cuts through the Great Wall to reach Yinchuan, a major wool, hide and skin trading center in the Northwest.
ref: 1956 October, Grace Liu, “A Train Trip in China”, in New World Review, volume 24, number 10, New York: S.R.T. Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20, column 1:
glosses: To arrive at (a place) by effort of any kind.
examples: text: I tried to reach you all day.
synonyms: contact
get hold of
get in touch
glosses: To make contact with.
examples: text: What will it take for me to reach him?
text: Whether by design or driven by the force of circumstances, they have always directed their main effort toward gaining the support of this "elite," while the more conservative groups have acted, as regularly but unsuccessfully, on a more naive view of mass democracy and have usually vainly tried directly to reach and to persuade the individual voter.
ref: 1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 418:
glosses: To connect with (someone) on an emotional level, making them receptive of (one); to get through to (someone).
examples: text: The particulars that reach from Eastern Bengal require corroboration.
ref: 1907, George Clifford Whitworth, Indian English: An Examination of the Errors of Idiom made by Indians in Writing English, page 122:
text: I reached at the right time.
ref: 1958, India. Ministry of Education, A Basic Grammar of Modern Hindi: English Version, page 33:
text: It should be noted that Hare Krishna Konar, an arch leftist, could not vote on the Bhupesh Gupta—S.K. Achaiya issue as he reached late.
ref: 1960, Gene Donald Overstreet, Marshall Windmiller, Communism in India, page 144:
text: In the event of your statement reaching later than 6th March, there will be chances of your requirement left and leading to difficulty of having to explain your excess or saving being as the case may be.
ref: 1975, India. Parliament. Public Accounts Committee, Epitome of the Reports of the Central Committee of Public Accounts from 1967-68 to 1970-71 (Fourth Lok Sabha) and of the Government Orders Thereon, page 144:
text: I suggest taking an earlier bus (say 6:00 p.m.), reaching at around midnight, then taking a taxi (might even be able to catch the last MRT) to Changi.
ref: 2004 February 18, Mr. Free Notes, “Getting bus from KL to Singapore leaving night, likely to be any delays in arrival?”, in soc.culture.singapore (Usenet):
text: When we reached at 7.30 a.m., we saw groups of men and women bracing themselves for the day's events by writing out posters or painting placards.
ref: 2009, Boria Majumdar, Nalin Mehta, India and the Olympics, page 218:
text: Once we reached, we parked our cars beneath the trees and started trekking up the hill after a brief round of introductions.
ref: 2012 April 26, Rakesh Chandrasekar, “Post Trek Mail II - Freshers Trek April 22nd Nagala West”, in The Chennai Trekking Club (Usenet):
glosses: To arrive at a particular destination.
examples: text: You can only access the inheritance money when you reach the age of 25.
glosses: To continue living until or up to (a certain age).
examples: text: Do what, sir? I reach you not.
ref: 1612 January 5 (first performance, Gregorian calendar; published 1619), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “A King, and No King”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii:
glosses: To understand; to comprehend.
examples: text: Reach for your dreams.
text: Reach for the stars!
text: Repetitious comments are other examples of introjects that we take on as if they were truths. These include: You're lazy; you're selfish; you'll never amount to anything; you have big dreams; don't you think you're reaching a bit; try something more attainable; you were never good in math; you're not quick on your feet; you're oblivious to the world around you.
ref: 2015, Janet S. Steinwedel, The Golden Key to Executive Coaching:
glosses: To strain after something; to make (sometimes futile or pretentious) efforts.
examples: text: The Thembu tribe reaches back for twenty generations to King Zwide.
ref: 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 4:
glosses: To extend in dimension, time etc.; to stretch out continuously (past, beyond, above, from etc. something).
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To sail on the wind, as from one point of tacking to another, or with the wind nearly abeam.
examples: text: What time you reaching tomorrow?
text: If you're calling out at your homies to come over and hang out, you just simply say "reach."
ref: 2017 September 21, Kristina Ramcharran, “25 Toronto Slang Words You've Definitely Heard At Least Once”, in Narcity:
synonyms: link up
glosses: To arrive at a particular destination, especially to join someone; to meet up.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: broad-reaching
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: far-reaching
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: forereach
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: outreach
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: overreach
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reachable
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach across the aisle
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach an early grave
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach down
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach for
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach for the moon
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach for the skies
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach for the sky
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach for the stars
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach-me-down
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach out
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach past
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach rock bottom
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: reach-through
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: rereach
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: upreach
sense: Terms derived from reach (verb)
word: when I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun