Word.ws English Dictionary

stretch

/stɹɛt͡ʃ/

stretch verb: to lengthen by pulling. Also the ellipsis of stretch limousine.

stretch: to lengthen by pulling
Image: Sergio Savarese from Sao Paulo City / Ipiranga, Brasil, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

stretch (third-person singular simple present stretches, present participle stretching, simple past and past participle stretched or (obsolete) straught or (obsolete) straight)

  1. (transitive) To lengthen by pulling.
    • I stretched the rubber band until it almost broke.
  2. (intransitive) To lengthen when pulled.
    • The rubber band stretched almost to the breaking point.
    • The inner membrane […] because it would stretch and yield, remained unbroken.1659 December 30 (date written), Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and Its Effects […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] H[enry] Hall, printer to the...
  3. (transitive) To pull tight.
    • First, stretch the skin over the frame of the drum.
  4. (intransitive, transitive) To extend one’s limbs or another part of the body, for example in order to improve the elasticity of one's muscles.
    • I always stretch my muscles before exercising.
    • When the cat woke up, it yawned and stretched.
  5. (intransitive) To extend physically, especially from a limit point and/or to a limit point.
    • The beach stretches from Cresswell to Amble.
    • Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path[…]. It twisted and turned,[…]and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn. And, back of the lawn, was a big, old-fashioned house, with piazzas stretching in front of it, and all blazing with lights.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
  6. (figuratively, transitive) To get more use than expected from a limited resource.
    • I managed to stretch my coffee supply a few more days.
  7. (figuratively, transitive) To make inaccurate by exaggeration.
    • To say crossing the street was brave is stretching the meaning of "brave" considerably.
    • To say he's been to this park a million times is stretching the numbers. The true number is around 30 or 40.
  8. (transitive) To make great demands on the capacity or resources of something.
    • Her bizarre explanation really stretches credulity.
    • By the fullest exploitation of modern signalling, multiple-unit operation and flying and burrowing junctions the S.R. has greatly increased the capacity of its tracks to carry this growing load of peak-hour passengers, but that capacity is now stretched to the limit.1960 March, “Talking of Trains: The problem of the peak”, in Trains Illustrated, page 130
  9. (transitive) To increase.
    • Yakubu took advantage of John Ruddy's error to put the visitors back in front, with Chris Samba's header stretching their advantage.2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3-3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport
  10. (intransitive) To increase, to grow.
    • As I sat in the waiting room, the minutes stretched into hours.
    • Unless we rekindle our communication skills, the 2020s "loneliness epidemic" could stretch into a "solitary century."2025 December 9, Rachel Konrad and Matt Abrahams, “Why Young People Are Struggling to Communicate”, in TIME
  11. To sail by the wind under press of canvas.
    • The ship stretched to the eastward.
  12. (transitive) To make a pulse or particle bunch longer by applying dispersion to it.
    • Diffraction gratings are by far the most common elements used to stretch and compress pulses because of their substantial angular dispersion, […]2019, B. Webb et al., “Simulation of grating compressor misalignment tolerances and mitigation strategies for chirped-pulse–amplification systems of varying bandwidths and beam sizes”, in Applied...
    Antonyms:
    compress
  13. (archaic, slang, transitive) To execute by hanging.
  14. (colloquial, intransitive, obsolete) To stretch the truth; to exaggerate.
    • a man apt to stretch in his report of facts

Noun

stretch (countable and uncountable, plural stretches)

  1. An act of stretching.
    • I was right in the middle of a stretch when the phone rang.
  2. The ability to lengthen when pulled.
    • That rubber band has quite a bit of stretch.
  3. (idiomatic) A course of thought which diverts from straightforward logic, or requires extraordinary belief or exaggeration.
    • It's a bit of a stretch to call Boris Karloff a comedian.
    • To say crossing the street was brave was quite a stretch.
  4. A segment of a journey or route.
    • It was an easy trip except for the last stretch, which took forever.
    • It's a tough stretch of road in the winter, especially without chains.
  5. A segment or length of material.
    • a stretch of cloth
  6. (UK, archaic, slang) A walk.
    • In the afternoon I went for a stretch into the country, & about 4 it cleared up pretty well, so I hurried back & we got a cart & drove to Bassano, a little town about 8 miles off, that we wanted to see.a. 1941, Evelyn Underhill, quoted in 2010, Evelyn Underhill, Carol Poston, The Making of a Mystic: New and Selected Letters of Evelyn Underhill (page 81)
  7. A quick pitching delivery used when runners are on base where the pitcher slides his leg instead of lifting it.
  8. 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.
  9. (informal) Term of address for a tall person.
    • “Hey, Stretch,” he shouted at a tall, spectacled co-worker, “turn the fucking station, will you? You know I can't stand Rush, and it's all they play on this one. If I hear those assholes whine 'Tom Sawyer' one more time, I may go on a fucking killing spree.2007, Michael Farrell, Running with Buffalo
    • Amelia: I mean, you're already a dwarf.
      Gura: Oh, OK, Stretch.2024 February 10, Amelia Watson, Gawr Gura, 2:46:24 from the start, in 【Deep Rock Galactic】yoooooooooo (YouTube live stream)
  10. The homestretch, the final straight section of the track leading to the finish.
  11. A length of time.
    • After the harvest there was a stretch of clear dry weather, and the animals toiled harder than ever […]1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC
    1. (Ireland) Extended daylight hours, especially said of the evening in springtime when compared to the shorter winter days.
      • There is a grand stretch in the evenings.
    2. The period of the season between the trade deadline and the beginning of the playoffs.
      • The '42 Cardinals are best known for their amazing stretch run. St. Louis won 43 of their last 51 games and came back from a double-digit deficit in games in early August to edge out the Dodgers for the N.L. flag.2000, Rob Neyer, Eddie Epstein, GBaseball Dynasties: The Greatet Teams of All Time, page 179
    3. (slang) A jail or prison term.
      • "Of course, if Cripps likes to stay here and do a stretch for burglary, well and good."1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 132
      • He did a seven-year stretch in jail.
    4. (slang) A jail or prison term of one year's duration.
    5. A single uninterrupted sitting; a turn.

Proper noun capitalized: Stretch

Stretch

  1. A surname.

Also used as

stretch is also the ellipsis of stretch limousine.

stretch meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam

stretch in Hindi

स्ट्रेच, स्ट्रेच करें

stretch in Bengali

স্ট্রেচ

stretch in Telugu

to lengthen by pulling
సాగదీయు sāgadīyu
to lengthen when pulled
సాగు sāgu
to extend one’s limbs or body, for example in order to improve the elasticity the muscles
ఒళ్ళు విరుచుకొను oḷḷu virucukonu

stretch in Malayalam

സ്ട്രെച്ച്
More languagesFewer languages
stretch in Kannada
ಸ್ಟ್ರೆಚ್, ಸ್ಟ್ರೆಚ್ ಮಾಡಿ
stretch in Gujarati
સ્ટ્રેચ, સ્ટ્રેચ કરો
stretch in Odia
ଷ୍ଟ୍ରେଚ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ଷ୍ଟ୍ରେଚ୍
stretch in Sanskrit
तनोति tanóti
stretch in Assamese
মেলা mela
stretch in Nepali
स्ट्रेच, स्ट्र्याच, स्ट्रेच गर्नुहोस्
stretch in Arabic
تَمَدَّدَ tamaddada, مَدَّدَ maddada, اِمْتَدَّ imtadda
stretch in Vietnamese
duỗi
Dzongkha
ཧབ hab

Examples of stretch in a sentence

  • The string of cars stretched as far as I could see.
  • The desert stretched out toward the horizon as if into infinity.
  • The gym teacher at our school makes us stretch before and after each class.

All 40 example sentences with stretch

Synonyms of stretch

10 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of stretch

Forms of stretch

Verb
third-person singular presentstretches
present participlestretching
past participlestretched
paststretched
alternative misspellingstrech
alternative deliberate misspellingstremtch
past participle (obsolete)straught
past (obsolete)straught
past participle (obsolete)straight
past (obsolete)straight
Noun
pluralstretches

Past tense of stretch: stretched

Plural of stretch: stretches

Origin of stretch

From Middle English strecchen, from Old English streċċan (“to stretch, hold out, extend, spread out, prostrate”), from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan (“to stretch, make taut or tight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg-, *streg-, *treg- (“stiff, rigid”). 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.

Words formed from stretch

Phrases with stretch

12 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with stretch

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about stretch

What does stretch mean?
Stretch means to lengthen by pulling.
What is stretch in Hindi?
Stretch in Hindi is स्ट्रेच, स्ट्रेच करें. See Stretch meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is stretch?
Stretch can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce stretch?
Stretch is pronounced /stɹɛt͡ʃ/.
What is the past tense of stretch?
The past tense of stretch is stretched.

Words near stretch in the dictionary

  1. stressosome
  2. stressosomes
  3. stressproof
  4. stresswise
  5. stressy
  6. stretch
  7. stretch a point
  8. stretch band
  9. stretch bands
  10. stretch fabric
  11. stretch forth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stretch (page history and authors); Stretch (page history and authors); stretch (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stretch (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stretch (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stretch (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stretch (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stretch (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stretch (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-stretch.ogg.

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