Word.ws English Dictionary

outstretch

Syllables: out·stretch/aʊtˈstɹɛt͡ʃ/

outstretch verb: to extend by stretching.

Verb

outstretch (third-person singular simple present outstretches, present participle outstretching, simple past and past participle outstretched)

  1. (transitive) To extend by stretching.
    • She knew from avalanche safety courses that outstretched hands might puncture the ice surface and alert rescuers. She knew that if victims ended up buried under the snow, cupped hands in front of the face could provide a small pocket of air for the mouth and nose. Without it, the first breaths...2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall : The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Times

Examples of outstretch in a sentence

  • The guard launched a desperate lob over the outstretched arms of the defender.
  • They ran towards each other with arms outstretched, and the credits rolled.
  • A shaftment is the width of the palm and the outstretched thumb.

All 36 example sentences with outstretch

Forms of outstretch

third-person singular presentoutstretches
present participleoutstretching
past participleoutstretched
pastoutstretched

Origin of outstretch

From Middle English outstrecchen, equivalent to out- + stretch. Cognate with West Frisian útstreekje (“to outstretch”), Dutch uitstrekken (“to outstretch”), German Low German utstrecken (“to outstretch”), German ausstrecken (“to outstretch”), Danish udstrække (“to outstretch”), Swedish utsträcka (“to outstretch”).

Words formed from outstretch

Words that rhyme with outstretch

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about outstretch

What does outstretch mean?
Outstretch means to extend by stretching.
What part of speech is outstretch?
Outstretch is a verb.
How do you pronounce outstretch?
Outstretch is pronounced /aʊtˈstɹɛt͡ʃ/.
What is the past tense of outstretch?
The past tense of outstretch is outstretched.

Words near outstretch in the dictionary

  1. outstreets
  2. outstrength
  3. outstrengthed
  4. outstrengthing
  5. outstrengths
  6. outstretch
  7. outstretched
  8. outstretchedness
  9. outstretcher
  10. outstretchers
  11. outstretches

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: outstretch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “outstretch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/outstretch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.