Word.ws English Dictionary

stretching the truth

stretching the truth is the present participle and gerund of stretch the truth.

Meaning of stretch the truth

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)

  1. (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

Questions about stretching the truth

What is stretching the truth the present participle and gerund of?
Stretching the truth is the present participle and gerund of stretch the truth.

Words near stretching the truth in the dictionary

  1. stretching rope
  2. stretching the envelope
  3. stretching the long bow
  4. stretching the point
  5. stretching the rules
  6. stretching the truth
  7. stretching thin
  8. stretching-iron
  9. stretching-irons
  10. stretchings
  11. stretchless

Source and license

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