stretch

Meanings

Verb

• To lengthen by pulling.
• To lengthen when pulled.
• To pull tight.
• To get more use than expected from a limited resource.
• To make inaccurate by exaggeration.
• To extend physically, especially from limit point to limit point.
• To extend one’s limbs or another part of the body in order to improve the elasticity of one's muscles
• To extend to a limit point
• To increase.
• To stretch the truth; to exaggerate.
• To sail by the wind under press of canvas.
• To execute by hanging.
• To make great demands on the capacity or resources of something.

Noun

• An act of stretching.
• The ability to lengthen when pulled.
• A course of thought which diverts from straightforward logic, or requires extraordinary belief or exaggeration.
• A segment of a journey or route.
• A segment or length of material.
• A walk.
• A quick pitching delivery used when runners are on base where the pitcher slides his leg instead of lifting it.
• A long reach in the direction of the ball with a foot remaining on the base by a first baseman in order to catch the ball sooner.
• The homestretch, the final straight section of the track leading to the finish.
• A length of time.
• A stretch limousine.

Origin

• From Middle English strecchen, from Old English streċċan, from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg-, *streg-, *treg-. 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.