Also 6 stretche, 7 strech, Sc. streitch, streach. [f. STRETCH v.]
1. The action or an act of stretching physically; the fact of being stretched.
a. Forcible extension or dilatation; occas. degree or amount of this.
1600. Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, D 6. Or else heele haue it with fiue and a reach, Although it cost his necke the Halter stretch.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1704), 332. To secure them from disruption, which … they [the bones] would be in some danger of, upon a great and sudden stretch or contortion, if they were dry.
1705. Elstob, in Hearne’s Collect., 30 Nov. (O.H.S.), I. 109. He gagg’d him to ye fullest stretch.
1883. S. Chappel, Sewing Machine, 24. You will find when you want to work the machine that the belt, owing to the continued stretch, is too slack.
1893. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 472. The amount of distension of the ventricle, in other words, the degree of stretch in the muscle fibres.
1907. O’Gorman, Motor Pocket Bk. (ed. 2), 598. In adjusting the stretch of side chains by the turn-buckle…, care must be taken to [etc.].
b. Stretching out or extension of the limbs; extent or measure of stretching out.
1696. R. H., Sch. Recreat., 80. (Fencing) And when you are at your full stretch, keep your Left-hand stretched, and ever observe to keep a close Left-foot, which [etc.].
1697. Dryden, Æneis, X. 967. Sometimes he thought to swim the stormy Main, By stretch of Arms the distant Shore to gain. Ibid. (1700), Fables, Ceyx & Alcyone, 482. At all her stretch her little wings she spread.
1710. Felton, Diss. Classics (1718), 12. What is Excellent is placed out of ordinary Reach, and Your Lordship will easily be persuaded to put forth Your Hand to the utmost Stretch, and reach whatever You aspire at.
1830. A. Fonblanque, Eng. under Seven Administr. (1837), II. 35. The knight…, lifting his battle-axe to the utmost stretch of his arm, dashed the edge with all his might upon the forehead of the giant.
1854. Spencer, in Brit. Q. Rev., July, 139. Amongst other ancient measures were the orgyia or stretch of the arms, the pace, and the palm.
c. A resting with outstretched limbs. † At full stretch: reclining at full length.
1700. T. Brown, Amusem. Ser. & Com., Wks. 1719, III. 14. He lolls at full Stretch within, and half a dozen brawny Bulk-begotten Footmen behind [his coach].
1856. Chamb. Jrnl., 12 Jan., 27/2. Punter never gets above four hours’ sleep in his bed; but he makes up for that deficiency … by a two hours’ stretch on the bench in the afternoon.
† d. Upon one’s last stretch: in one’s death-agony. Obs.
1680. R. L’Estrange, 20 Select Colloq. Erasm., 258. Observing the Woman to Yawn and just upon her last Stretch, he put [etc.].
e. An act of drawing up the body and extending the arms, indicating weariness or languor.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 320, ¶ 5. Our Salutation at Entrance is a Yawn and a Stretch, and then without more Ceremony we take our Place at the Lolling Table.
1856. Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, I. viii. He gave a yawn and a stretch.
f. An act of ‘stretching one’s legs’; a walk taken for exercise. (Cf. 6 c.)
a. 1761. [S. Haliburton & Hepburn], Mem. Magopico, viii. (ed. 2), 24. A good stretch, in a morning, over heath, and hills, and ditches … will make a man eat a good breakfast.
1871. Gladstone, in Morley, Life, VI. viii. (1903), II. 378. I have had a twelve-miles stretch to-day, almost all on wild ground.
1887. Old Man’s Favour, II. II. vii. 37. ‘Were you detained at the office?’ ‘No; I went for a stretch after.’
g. The condition of being stretched; state of tension. Phrases, on, upon the stretch; to bring to the stretch.
1673. Boyle, New Exper. Efficacy Air’s Moisture, 11. I suppos’d, that after a time this unusual stretch of the Rope would cease.
1679. Dryden, Troil. & Cress., Pref. b 1 b. What melody can be made on that Instrument, all whose strings are screw’d up at first to their utmost stretch, and to the same sound?
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 153. The Blood-vessels in the Legs are more upon the Stretch.
1748. Anson’s Voy., I. vi. 66. They … strain the two thongs in contrary directions…, keeping the thongs still upon the stretch.
1753. J. Bartlet, Gentl. Farriery (1754), 356. E, a strap fixed to the pad,… to keep the tail on the stretch at pleasure.
1781. Cowper, Truth, 384. An instrument, whose cords, upon the stretch,… Yield only discord in his Maker’s ear.
1786. J. Pearson, in Med. Commun., II. 97. The ligament was on the stretch.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 274. The chains being introduced and brought to a stretch.
1816. Crabb, Engl. Syn., 177. s.v. Breeze, The mariner has favourable gales which keep the sails on the stretch.
1827. D. Johnson, Ind. Field Sports, 73. The string … is kept at its stretch by means of a stiff piece of stick.
c. 1860. H. Stuart, Seaman’s Catech., 27. The rigging must be got on a stretch.
fig. 1702. Vanbrugh, False Friend, IV. i. Sure Villainy and Impudence were never on the Stretch before: This Traytor has wreckt ’em till they Crack.
h. Capacity for being stretched.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2415/2. It is called the straining, because the stretch is taken out of it by repeated wettings and stretchings.
1887. Wheeling, 6 July, 208/1. The leather used for the seats has been subjected to sufficient pressure to take all the stretch out of it.
1894. Times, 15 Aug., 11/1. The Vigilant could not sail owing to the stretch not having been taken out of her new main rigging.
2. In immaterial sense: A stretching or straining something beyond its proper limits.
† a. An act exceeding the scope of one’s authority or commission, or the bounds of strict law or justice; a strained or unfair argument or representation; also, an act of ‘stretching a point,’ a deviation from one’s accustomed rule or principle. Chiefly Sc. Obs.
1541. Wyatt, Lett. to Privy Counc., Poems (1858), p. xxiv. If these be the matters that may bring me into suspect, me semeth … that the credit that an Ambassador hath, or ought to have, might well discharge as great stretches as these.
1689. Earl of Crawford, in Leven & Melv. Papers (Bannatyne Club), 319. Mr. Aird, who is represented as a man of great piety, and turned out by a streach.
a. 1714. G. Lockhart, in L. Papers (1817), I. 212. Such a proposal had actually been made; and even supposing it were otherwise, it was not the first time they had made greater stretches with a design that good might come of it.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1766), II. 29. It was an unheard of stretch, to oblige men to be bound for others in matters of Religion.
1717. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), II. 264. Though it was urged in his defence, that by ‘natural powers’ was meant only such as hearing, reading, going to ordinances,… yet these stretches did not satisfy. Ibid. (1722), Hist. Suff. Ch. Scot., II. 398. Then the Probation is summed up with much Cunning, and many Stretches.
c. 1730. T. Boston, in Morrison, Mem., xii. (1899), 381. Mr. Gordon returning to Edinburgh,… desired an interview. Whereupon I made a stretch, and went thither.
1742. Kames, Decis. Crt. Sess., 1730–52 (1799), 61. It is therefore a stretch beyond the common law, to support a man’s nomination of tutors to his children.
1776. Paine, Com. Sense (1791), 63. The unwarrantable stretch, likewise, which that house made in their last sitting, to gain an undue authority over the Delegates of that Province, ought to warn the people at large, how they trust power out of their own hands.
b. More explicitly: An unwarranted exercise of power, prerogative; a straining of the law.
1689. in Acts Parlt. Scot. (1875), XII. 64/2. The causeing perseu and forfault severall persones upon streitches of old and absolute Lawes.
1693. Apol. Clergy Scot., 25. A stretch of Arbitrary Power, never heard of in Scotland.
1718. Hickes & Nelson, J. Kettlewell, II. xlii. 145. None could be more zealous in putting the King upon the Stretch of his Prerogative.
1757. Hume, Hist. Gt. Brit., Chas. II., ii. II. 187. His ministers … could not forbear making very extraordinary stretches of authority.
1759. Bp. Hurd, Moral Dialogues, iv. 133. Her [Q. Eliz.] parliaments were disposed to wave all disputes about the stretch of her prerogative, from a sense of their own and the common danger.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. v. 69. Neither himself [Chas. I.] nor his people seemed able to distinguish between the arbitrary stretch, and the legal exertion, of prerogative.
1771. Goldsm., Hist. Eng., IV. 14. These stretches of power naturally led the lords and commons into some degree of opposition.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), V. 449. The determination of the Judges…, so far from being considered as an unwarrantable stretch of their authority, must on the contrary be acknowledged to have been a measure of great public utility.
1849. Ht. Martineau, Hist. Peace, IV. xii. (1877), III. 95. Public sympathy was with them, as with men punished by a stretch of law for a nominal offence.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. § 5. 510. As daring a stretch of the prerogative superseded what was known as Knox’s Liturgy.
c. An exaggerated statement. On the stretch (nonce-phrase): using exaggeration, ‘drawing the long bow.’
1710–1. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 1 Jan. That’s a d—ned lie of your chimney being carried to the next house with the wind…. My Lord Hertford would have been ashamed of such a stretch.
1782. Mrs. Cowley, Which is the Man? IV. ii. Hyperbole! What’s that? Why, that’s as much as to say, a stretch.
1834. Marryat, P. Simple, xxxi. It a’n’t that I might not stretch now and then,… but … he’s always on the stretch…. He never tells the truth except by mistake.
d. An exercise of imagination, understanding, etc., beyond ordinary limits.
1781. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, June. [His] supposed enmity to Merlin is, indeed, a stretch of that absurd creature’s imagination.
1803. Med. Jrnl., IX. 26. It requires no great stretch of understanding to know that the same practice will not answer in all climates.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, lxx. Every day the ministers are filling up the minor places, and it requires a great stretch of recollection in a politician to remember the absent.
1839. J. Martineau, Stud. Christianity, iii. (1858), 111. But this was a stretch of charity too great for any Hebrew.
1841. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, i. Indeed it needed no very great stretch of fancy to detect in it other resemblances to humanity.
1862. Sporting Mag., Nov., 329. It required no great stretch of intellect to acquit the officers honourably on the evidence.
e. An undue extension of scope or application. Stretch of language: the use of words or expressions with undue latitude of meaning.
1849. Grote, Greece, II. xxxix. (1862), III. 412. This bold stretch of exegetical conjecture.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. App. 431. With reference to this hypothesis, I will only say that it is a bold stretch of analogies.
1875. W. K. Clifford, Lect. & Ess. (1879), I. 229. It is only by a stretch of language that we can be said to desire that which is inconceivable.
1905. Miss Broughton, Waif’s Progr., xiv. 164. It could not, by any stretch of language, be considered a good thing for any young woman to be taken under the … wing of Lady Tennington.
3. Furthest, utmost stretch: the utmost degree to which a thing can be extended. Now rare or Obs.
1558. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), Table I. For castinge and ymployeinge of the stuffe to the furdeste stretche of sarvice.
1687. Atterbury, Answ. Consid. Spirit Luther, 45. Quotations … which, in their utmost stretch can signify no more then that Lr. lay under severe agonies of mind.
1712. Granville, Unnatural Flights Poetry, 65. This is the utmost Stretch that Nature can, And all beyond is fulsome, false, and vain.
1713. Guardian, No. 147, ¶ 2. He did not exceed, but went to the utmost stretch of his Income.
1715. Pope, Iliad, I. Pref. B 1. The utmost Stretch of human Study, Learning, and Industry,… can never attain to this.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 199. She shall know it all, said he; and I defy the utmost stretch of your malice.
† b. Utmost degree, acme. Obs.
1742. Richardson, Pamela, III. 182. [It] was the very Stretch of shameless Wickedness.
4. Strain or tension of mental or bodily powers; strained exertion. (Figurative use of 1 g.) Chiefly in phrases.
† a. On the stretch, on her stretches (said of a hawk): making a long swooping flight. Obs.
1622. Fletcher, Prophetess, IV. iv. And scatter ’em, as an high towring Falcon on her Stretches, severs the fearfull fowl.
1636. Massinger, Bashful Lover, III. ii. See with what winged speed they climb the hill Like Falcons on the stretch to seise the prey.
b. † At the full stretch (obs.), upon full stretch, on the stretch: with strain of the physical powers; chiefly, making full speed.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, V. 259. They row At the full stretch, and shake the Brazen Prow.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 56, ¶ 3. He saw the Apparition of a milk-white Steed, with a young Man on the Back of it, advancing upon full Stretch after the Souls of about an hundred Beagles.
1768. J. Byron, Narr. Patagonia (ed. 2), 221. While their horse is upon full stretch.
1797. S. James, Narr. Voy., 175. To return to our own ship. We were now on the stretch for Europe.
1839. Laws of Coursing, in Youatt’s Dog (1845), App. 262. She [a hare] turns of her own accord to gain ground homeward, when both dogs are on the stretch after her.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, xvi. About fifty seconds after two I was in the saddle and on the full stretch for Stirling.
c. On the († full) stretch: in a state of mental strain, making intense effort. So to put, set upon the (full) stretch.
1683. Dryden, Life Plutarch, 24. His memory was always on the stretch to receive … their discourses.
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1716), II. 98. We cannot live always upon the Stretch; our Faculties will not bear constant Pleasure any more than constant Pain.
1692. Atterbury, Serm. (Ps. l. 14) (1726), I. 23. The Praise and Admiration of God … sets our Faculties upon their full Stretch.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 38, ¶ 1. You might see his Imagination on the Stretch to find out something uncommon.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 318. This set all … heads upon the stretch, to inquire.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 361. Craft and cozenage … put our faculties to the stretch, and lay the foundation of prudence.
1771. Wesley, Wks. (1872), V. 272. He is on the full Stretch to save their Souls.
1778. Sir J. Reynolds, Disc., viii. (1876), 443. The writers of every age and country, where taste has begun to decline,… are always on the stretch; never deviate … a moment from the pompous and the brilliant.
1796. Ann. Reg., Hist., 108. His thoughts were uninterruptedly on the stretch.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. xiv. 277. The inmates of Sisera’s harem … are on the stretch of expectation for the sight of … their champion.
1866. A. Halliday, in Dickens, etc., Mugby Junction, 26/2. Me and my stoker were on the stretch all the time, doing two things at once—attending to the engine and looking out.
1884. H. A. Taine, in Contemp. Rev., Oct., 521. His business keeps his mind on the stretch.
d. Exhausting effort or strain of mind. Now rare.
1791. Boswell, Johnson, I. Advt. ¶ 2. The stretch of mind and prompt assiduity by which so many conversations were preserved.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansf. Park, ix. The greater length of the service, however, I admit to be sometimes too hard a stretch upon the mind. Ibid. (c. 1815), Persuas. (1818), II. viii. 148. The horror and distress you were involved in—the stretch of mind, the wear of spirits.
1859. Boyd, Recreat. Country Parson, iii. 117. Mental work is much the greater stretch; and it is strain, not time, that kills.
† 5. To give stretch to: to allow to act unchecked. Obs.
1777. Burgoyne, Proclam., in Gentl. Mag., XLVII. 360/2. I have but to give stretch to the Indian forces under my direction,… to overtake the hardened enemies of Great-Britain.
6. Extent in time or space.
a. An unbroken continuance of some one employment, occupation, or condition, during a period of time; an uninterrupted ‘spell’ of work, rest, prosperity, etc. Chiefly in phrase at one or a stretch, upon or on a stretch, rarely at the stretch: without intermission, continuously (during the time specified or implied). [Cf. G. in einer strecke.]
1689. Lond. Gaz., No. 2451/3. So [we] continued Battering upon a Strech till five in the Afternoon.
1693. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1711), III. 134. God will then proceed to the highest actuation of the Soul … so that her whole Life shall be but one constant Stretch of Thought.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. 163. They will trot … between fifty and sixty English miles at one stretch.
1799. J. King, in Corr. W. Fowler (1907), 32. We are much in at Sunderland. We are eight nights in upon a stretch, out of twenty one.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., ix. The halt’s gane now, unless he has to walk ower mony miles at a stretch.
1825. Waterton, Wand. S. Amer., I. (1903), 2. Sometimes you see level ground on each side of you, for two or three hours at a stretch.
1834. Marryat, P. Simple, vii. He can snore for fourteen hours on a stretch.
1841. Thackeray, Gt. Hoggarty Diamond, i. We always played seven hours on a stretch.
1851. Macaulay, in Trevelyan, Life & Lett. (1880), II. 215. I read the last five books at a stretch.
1857. Trollope, Barchester T., xiii. I saw her talking to him for half an hour at the stretch.
1879. ‘Ouida,’ Cecil Castlemaine, 7. His rider had been in boot and saddle twenty-four hours at the stretch.
1885. Law Times, LXXIX. 206/1. He was unable … to walk more than five miles at a stretch.
1887. Jessopp, Arcady, vii. 214. He … gave us … accounts of the number of hours he had kept on working at a stretch.
1900. Law Rep., App. Cases, 405. The net remains fixed for periods as long as six hours at a stretch.
b. An extent in duration; a (more or less long) period of time.
1698. Norris, Pract. Disc. (1707), IV. 216. Could I lengthen out my span to an Antediluvian stretch, what should I be the better?
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., IV. xiv. If you … had been fretted out of … your mind, for a stretch of months together.
1892. E. Reeves, Homeward Bound, 102. We now have a stretch of eleven days before us, in which … we shall cross the Equator … and reach a new world at Colombo.
1905. Sir F. Treves, Other Side of Lantern, II. xvii. (1906), 118. To be still unforgotten after a stretch of years.
c. A continuous journey or march. Now colloq.
1699. Bentley, Phal., 441. To go from Syracuse to Alexandria and back again in a Morning, and on foot too over the Sea, is a stretch something extraordinary.
1715. Addison, Freeholder, No. 3, ¶ 2. Upon this alarm we made incredible stretches towards the South, to gain the Fastnesses of Preston.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, xviii. I made a stretch of four miles with six of my people in the direction of Inverlochy.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, i. ‘A long way, wasn’t it, Kit?’ said the little old man. ‘Why then, it was a goodish stretch, master,’ returned Kit.
d. Naut. A continuous sail on one tack.
1675. H. Teonge, Diary (1825), 42. All the last night wee were becalmed, but this morning a fayre gale, which carrys us smoothly over this longe stretch.
1688. in Third Collect. Papers Pres. Junct. Affairs, 2. Next day, upon Tide of Ebb, they made a Stretch, and made a Watch above a League, and then stood Westward.
1823. W. Scoresby, Jrnl., 131. In the evening, we made a stretch toward the land.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxvi. Two long stretches … brought us into the roads.
1845. J. Coulter, Adv. in Pacific, iv. 31. Having made a stretch off the coast about forty miles, we had a fine view of the tops of the Andes, covered with snow.
1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Lang., s.v., A long stretch is to sail a long distance on one tack.
e. Extent in length; a continuous length or distance; a continuous portion of a journey, of the length of a road, river, or the like.
1661. Hickeringill, Jamaica, 36. Some of them (I have seen) six or seven yards long, but their usual stretch, may bate the half.
1791. Newte, Tour Eng. & Scot., 294. The canal is carried on in almost a straight line for 2000 toises, all cut through a rock, which occasioned so great an expence, that in this stretch of the canal, they found themselves obliged to restrict the breadth of the upper surface of the water to five toises. Ibid., 297. This arch was thrown over in three stretches, having only a centre of thirty feet, which was shifted on small rollers from one stretch to another.
1872. ‘Mark Twain,’ Roughing It, xviii. (1882), 99. It was nothing but a watering depot in the midst of the stretch of sixty-eight miles.
1876. T. Hardy, Hand of Ethelberta, xxxi. There was, as the crow flies, a stretch of thirty-five miles between the two places.
1885. Bret Harte, Maraja, iii. Dead leaves of roses … lay thick on the empty stretch of brown verandah.
1908. G. Cormack, Egypt in Asia, ii. 18. This range [Lebanon] has an unbroken stretch of a hundred miles.
f. An expanse of land or water (usually, of uniform character).
1829. Scott, Anne of G., xv. You will see a species of thicket, or stretch of low bushes.
1850. D. G. Mitchell, Reveries Bachelor, 151. I see a broad stretch of meadow.
1851. Whittier, In Peace, 9. A slumberous stretch of mountain-land.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, i. 3. He may have recalled mechanically the names of these stretches of water.
1885. Manch. Exam., 16 June, 4/6. To dwell at Windsor, with its wide stretches of park and woodland and river.
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xxxii. 337. The wide stretch of sand was entirely deserted when they emerged from the narrow streets.
1912. J. L. Myres, Dawn of Hist., ix. 203. Macedon and Thrace, which also offer some stretches of pasture.
7. slang. a. A yard (measure).
1811. Lex. Balatron.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v., Five or ten stretch signifies five or ten yards.
b. A term of hard labor; twelve months as a term of imprisonment.
1821. Life D. Haggart (ed. 2), 138. I was then sentenced to lag for seven stretch.
1857. ‘Ducange Anglicus,’ Vulgar Tongue, 21. Stretch, hard labour, in prison. Th[ieves]. Stretch, twelve months hard labour. Th.
1888. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Robbery under Arms, iv. There’s a lot of law! How did I learn it?’ I had plenty of time in Berrima Gaol—worse luck—my first stretch.
8. Racing. (See quot. 1895.)
1895. G. J. Manson, Sporting Dict., Stretch, the straight or nearly straight sides of a course as distinguished from the curves or bends.
1903. Publ. Ledger (Philad.), 24 June, 13/9. Mexoana … took command in the stretch and won by two lengths from the favorite.
9. Mining and Geol. Course or direction of a seam or a stratum with regard to the points of the compass: = STREAK sb. 5, STRIKE sb. 8.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 294. The stretch or course of seams of coal, and of their attendant strata, is commonly between E. and W. or N.E. and S.W.
1805. Jameson, Min. Descr. Dumfries, 37. If we wish to discover the general stretch and dip of the strata of an extensive district.
10. Spinning. The length of spun yarn that is wound on the spindles at each journey of the mule-carriage towards the roller-beam: = DRAW sb. 6.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 312. The mule … makes in general three stretches in a minute.
1891. R. Marsden, Cotton Spinning (ed. 4), 197. This wheel is an intermittent spinning wheel, spinning a ‘draw’ or ‘stretch,’ so called, probably, from its being the length obtainable by the outstretching of the spinster’s arm.
