Word: reach Part of Speech: noun 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”). Cognate with Dutch reiken, German reichen. Pronunciation: /ɹiːt͡ʃ/ 1. The act of stretching or extending; extension. Labels: countable, uncountable 2. The ability to reach or touch with the person, a limb, or something held or thrown. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The fruit is beyond my reach. Example: to be within reach of cannon shot 3. The power of stretching out or extending action, influence, or the like; power of attainment or management; extent of force or capacity. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Drawn by others who had deeper reaches than themselves to matters which they least intended. Example: Be sure yourself and your own reach to know. 4. Extent; stretch; expanse; hence, application; influence; result; scope. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: And on the left hand, hell, / With long reach, interposed. Example: I am to pray you not to strain my speech / To grosser issues, nor to larger reach / Than to suspicion. 5. An exaggeration; an extension beyond evidence or normal; a stretch. Labels: countable, informal, uncountable Example: To call George eloquent is certainly a reach. 6. The distance a boxer's arm can extend to land a blow. Labels: countable, uncountable 7. Any point of sail in which the wind comes from the side of a vessel, excluding close-hauled. Labels: countable, uncountable 8. The distance traversed between tacks. Labels: countable, uncountable 9. A stretch of a watercourse which can be sailed in one reach (in the previous sense). An extended portion of water; a stretch; a straightish portion of a stream, river, or arm of the sea extending up into the land, as from one turn to another. By extension, the adjacent land. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: the gulfe Iasius, and all the coast thereof is very full of creekes and reaches. Example: The river's wooded reach. 10. A level stretch of a watercourse, as between rapids in a river or locks in a canal. (examples?) Labels: countable, uncountable 11. An extended portion or area of land or water. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Lower down, in a little reach of the lagoon there grew a clump of casuarinas, those timid isolates that withdraw from other trees, selecting their own privacy, which is for ever whispering secrets up in their feathery fronds, set in motion by the slightest breeze. Example: 2002, Russell Allen, "Incantations of the Apprentice", on Symphony X, The Odyssey. Through eerie reach of ancient woods / Where lumbering mists arise / I journey for nines moons of the year / To where a land of legend lies 12. An article to obtain an advantage. Labels: countable, obsolete, uncountable Example: The Duke of Parma had particular reaches and ends of his own, under hand, to cross the design. 13. The pole or rod connecting the rear axle with the forward bolster of a wagon. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: They leaped ahead just as Ruth came to the side of the long reach that connected the small pair of front wheels with the huge wheels in the rear.