stretching

Meanings

Noun

• The act by which something is stretched.
• A form of physical exercise in which a specific skeletal muscle (or muscle group) is deliberately elongated to its fullest length in order to improve the muscle's felt elasticity and reaffirm comfortable muscle tone.

Adjective

• Requiring a high level of effort or performance.

Verb

• Present participle of stretch

Origin

• From Middle English strecching, strecchinge, equivalent to stretch + -ing.
• From Middle English strecchinge, strecchynge, from Old English streċċende, from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjandī, present participle of *strakkjan, equivalent to stretch + -ing.