Word.ws English Dictionary

overstretched

overstretched is the simple past and past participle of overstretch.

Meaning of overstretch

Verb

overstretch (third-person singular simple present overstretches, present participle overstretching, simple past and past participle overstretched)

  1. To stretch too far.
    • The idle triumphes, maskes, lasciuious showes
      And prodigall gifts bestowed on Gaueston,
      Haue drawne thy treasure drie, and made thee weake,
      The murmuring commons ouerstretched hath.1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC...
  2. To stretch over something.

See all 3 meanings of overstretch

Adjective

overstretched (comparative more overstretched, superlative most overstretched)

  1. Subject to demands that are more than can be reasonably handled.
    • Software developer Amey Consulting has used it to identify issues elsewhere on the network, such as at East Croydon where platforms 3 and 4 were identified as causes of delay due to staff being overstretched at peak hours.2020 April 8, “Software aids GA punctuality study”, in Rail, page 22
    • Critics of MCEDs also warn that a deluge of test results could put additional pressure on already overstretched health services. A Galleri pilot screening programme in Arizona for firefighters missed many instances of cancer, raising questions about accuracy.2023 May 17, Jamie Smyth, “Quick blood tests to spot cancer: will they help or harm patients?”, in Financial Times

Forms of overstretched

comparativemore overstretched
superlativemost overstretched

Questions about overstretched

What does overstretched mean?
Overstretched means subject to demands that are more than can be reasonably handled.
What is overstretched the simple past and past participle of?
Overstretched is the simple past and past participle of overstretch.
What part of speech is overstretched?
Overstretched is an adjective.

Words near overstretched in the dictionary

  1. overstressed
  2. overstresses
  3. overstressful
  4. overstressing
  5. overstretch
  6. overstretched
  7. overstretches
  8. overstretching
  9. overstrew
  10. overstrewed
  11. overstrewing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overstretched (page history and authors); overstretch (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: “overstretched.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/overstretched. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.