Stretch, n.
 1. Act of stretching, or state of being stretched; reach; effort; struggle; strain; as, a stretch of the limbs; a stretch of the imagination.
    By stretch of arms the distant shore to gain.   --Dryden.
    Those put a lawful authority upon the stretch, to the abuse of yower, under the color of prerogative.   --L'Estrange.
 2. A continuous line or surface; a continuous space of time; as, grassy stretches of land.
    A great stretch of cultivated country.   --W. Black.
    But all of them left me a week at a stretch.   --E. Eggleston.
 3. The extent to which anything may be stretched.
    Quotations, in their utmost stretch, can signify no more than that Luther lay under severe agonies of mind.   --Atterbury.
    This is the utmost stretch that nature can.   --Granville.
 4. Naut. The reach or extent of a vessel's progress on one tack; a tack or board.
 5. Course; direction; as, the stretch of seams of coal.
 To be on the stretch, to be obliged to use one's utmost powers.
 Home stretch. See under Home, a.

 ◄ ►