Word: stretch Part of Speech: verb Etymology: 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. Pronunciation: /stɹɛt͡ʃ/ 1. To lengthen by pulling. Labels: transitive Example: I stretched the rubber band until it almost broke. 2. To lengthen when pulled. Labels: intransitive Example: The rubber band stretched almost to the breaking point. Example: The inner membrane […] because it would stretch and yield, remained unbroken. 3. To pull tight. Labels: transitive Example: 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. Labels: intransitive, transitive Example: I always stretch my muscles before exercising. Example: When the cat woke up, it yawned and stretched. 5. To extend physically, especially from a limit point and/or to a limit point. Labels: intransitive Example: The beach stretches from Cresswell to Amble. Example: 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 all blazing with lights. 6. To get more use than expected from a limited resource. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: I managed to stretch my coffee supply a few more days. 7. To make inaccurate by exaggeration. Labels: figuratively, transitive Example: To say crossing the street was brave is stretching the meaning of "brave" considerably. Example: To say he's been to this park a million times is stretching the numbers. The true number is around 30 or 40. 8. To make great demands on the capacity or resources of something. Labels: transitive Example: Her bizarre explanation really stretches credulity. Example: 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, but that capacity is now stretched to the limit. 9. To increase. Labels: transitive Example: Yakubu took advantage of John Ruddy's error to put the visitors back in front, with Chris Samba's header stretching their advantage. 10. To increase, to grow. Labels: intransitive Example: As I sat in the waiting room, the minutes stretched into hours. Example: Unless we rekindle our communication skills, the 2020s "loneliness epidemic" could stretch into a "solitary century." 11. To sail by the wind under press of canvas. Example: The ship stretched to the eastward. 12. To make a pulse or particle bunch longer by applying dispersion to it. Labels: transitive Example: Diffraction gratings are by far the most common elements used to stretch and compress pulses because of their substantial angular dispersion, […] 13. To execute by hanging. Labels: archaic, slang, transitive 14. To stretch the truth; to exaggerate. Labels: colloquial, intransitive, obsolete Example: a man apt to stretch in his report of facts