Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In surgery, the operation of forcibly stretching a nerve, as for neuralgia.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Examples
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He watched the clear black stream of coffee, strong, hot, nerve-stretching, pour into his cup.
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The inaction, the nerve-stretching tension, made almost unbearable by the thundery heat and the sweating uncertainty of that long vigil, suddenly snapped, in a wild shout from both sides of the field.
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There was nerve-stretching delay, for it had to be routed over land-wire to Kansas City, and some chief operator had to be convinced that she should commandeer a trunk line that was in commercial use.
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He was being caught up in the nerve-stretching excitement of the game.
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They had been in it for three days -- three strenuous nights and days of marching, of fighting, of suffering under heavy shell-fire, of insufficient and broken sleep, of irregular and unpalatable rations, of short commons of water, of nerve-stretching excitement and suspense, all the inevitable discomforts and hardships that in the best organised of armies must be the part of any hard-fought action.
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We had a very obstinate case of Bell's paralysis in the wards, and had tried it with every conceivable thing, blistering, tonics, nerve-stretching, galvanism, needles, but all without result.
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It was absorbing, exciting, exasperating, nerve-stretching, and finally it grew to be tragic.
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"In 1984 so many people were in 'bands' OR at home with personal computers that the motorways never got fixed - what was once a pleasure is now a nerve-stretching Exhaustion.
vendingmachine commented on the word nerve-stretching
Question: Should I refer to hyphenated words, like nerve-stretching, as a word or words? (I have no ego when it comes to asking about stuff I'm not sure about. How else am I supposed to find out?)
February 26, 2015
vendingmachine commented on the word nerve-stretching
"He watched the clear black stream of coffee, strong, hot, nerve-stretching, pour into his cup."
--excerpt: "Engaged to Die" by Carolyn Hart
In surgery, the operation of forcibly stretching a nerve, as for neuralgia.
(None of the examples on the right side of the nerve-stretching page use this word in its surgical-meaning context, which is the only definition mentioned.)
February 26, 2015