stretch the truth

stretch the truth verb: to exaggerate, often to the point where the truth is obscured or lost.

Verb

stretch the truth (third-person singular simple present stretches the truth, present participle stretching the truth, simple past and past participle stretched the truth)

(idiomatic) To exaggerate, often to the point where the truth is obscured or lost.
- It would stretch the truth, but perhaps not tear it to tatters, to say that World War II was fought over oil.1996 Fall, “From Sykes-Picot through Bandung to Oslo: Whither the Arab world?”, in Arab Studies Quarterly, volume 18, number 4, page 1
- You think they exaggerate sometimes? You think they embellish things, stretch the truth, play loose with the facts?2003 November 9, Jim Armstrong, “NFL players skilled at other sports”, in Houston Chronicle, Sports, page 2

অতিরঞ্জিত করা

third-person singular present	stretches the truth
present participle	stretching the truth
past participle	stretched the truth
past	stretched the truth

What does stretch the truth mean?: Stretch the truth means to exaggerate, often to the point where the truth is obscured or lost.
What is stretch the truth in Bengali?: Stretch the truth in Bengali is অতিরঞ্জিত করা. See Stretch the truth meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is stretch the truth?: Stretch the truth is a verb.
What is the past tense of stretch the truth?: The past tense of stretch the truth is stretched the truth.

Adapted from Wiktionary: stretch the truth (page history and authors); stretch the truth (Bengali Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-stretch the truth.ogg.

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