stretch
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: natural-sciences
nautical
physical-sciences
physics
transport
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.
Inflected forms:
form: stretches
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: stretching
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: stretched
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: stretched
pos: verb
tags: past
form: straught
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
participle
past
form: straught
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
past
form: straight
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
participle
past
form: straight
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
past
form: strech
pos: verb
tags: alternative
misspelling
form: stremtch
pos: verb
tags: alternative
deliberate
misspelling
Senses:
gloss: To lengthen by pulling.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I stretched the rubber band until it almost broke.
gloss: To lengthen when pulled.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The rubber band stretched almost to the breaking point.
The inner membrane […] because it would stretch and yield, remained unbroken.
gloss: To pull tight.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: First, stretch the skin over the frame of the drum.
gloss: To extend one’s limbs or another part of the body, for example in order to improve the elasticity of one's muscles.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: I always stretch my muscles before exercising.
When the cat woke up, it yawned and stretched.
gloss: To extend physically, especially from a limit point and/or to a limit point.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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 all blazing with lights.
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.
Three varieties of wild rice, O. rufipogon, O. officinalis and O. meyeriana, have been found in China, in a zone stretching from Hainan to Taiwan and from Northern Kwangsi to Ching-hung¹ on the Upper Mekong in Yunnan.
gloss: To get more use than expected from a limited resource.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: I managed to stretch my coffee supply a few more days.
gloss: To make inaccurate by exaggeration.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To make great demands on the capacity or resources of something.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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, but that capacity is now stretched to the limit.
gloss: To increase.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Yakubu took advantage of John Ruddy's error to put the visitors back in front, with Chris Samba's header stretching their advantage.
gloss: To increase, to grow.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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."
gloss: To sail by the wind under press of canvas.
pos: verb
examples: The ship stretched to the eastward.
gloss: To make a pulse or particle bunch longer by applying dispersion to it.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Diffraction gratings are by far the most common elements used to stretch and compress pulses because of their substantial angular dispersion, […]
gloss: To execute by hanging.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
slang
transitive
gloss: To stretch the truth; to exaggerate.
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
intransitive
obsolete
examples: a man apt to stretch in his report of facts
Related words: pandiculate
Translations: