stretch

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
“
The following proposals may feel like a stretch, but a stretch is the only thing that will work.

View all »
Definitions (86)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (30)

  1. transitive verb To lengthen, widen, or distend: stretched the sweater out of shape.
  2. transitive verb To cause to extend from one place to another or across a given space: stretched the banner between two poles.
  3. transitive verb To make taut; tighten: stretched the tarpaulin until it ripped.
27 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (33)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (20)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 216 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

expanse ·  patch ·  slope ·  sweep ·  valley ·  landscape ·  tract ·  portion ·  waste ·  reach ·  stream ·  edge

Used in the same contextWord Family

stretch:   Stretched ·  stretches ·  Stretch ·  stretched ·  stretching
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English strecchen, from Old English streccan.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English strecchen (also unassibilated streken, whence modern English dial. streek, streak, variant strake) (preterit straughte, straght, strahte, streahte, *streighte, streiʒte, streihte, strehte, past participle straught, sirauʒt, streight, streiʒt, streiht), from Anglo-Saxon streccan (preterit strehte, past participle streht) = OFries. strekka = Dutch strekken = Middle Low German strecken = Old High German strecchen, Middle High German G. strecken = Swedish sträcka = Danish strække, draw out, stretch; connected with the adjective Anglo-Saxon stræc, strec, strong, violent (literally stretched?), = Middle High German strac (strack-), German strack, straight; √ strak, perhaps orig. √ *srak, a variant of √ rak in retch, reck, reach; otherwise akin to L. stringere, past participle strictus, draw tight (see stringent, strain, strait), and to Greek στραγγός, twisted tight. Hence straight, orig. past participle of stretch. Connection with string, strong, etc., is uncertain.
  2. from stretch, v.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/strɛtʃ/
by American Heritage
Hear a sound »

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a day.

Recently looked up

supervisor · Ahi · parc · neediness · regenerator

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

ultimatum · pew · deadpool · sad panda · nom nom nom