Stretched

ppl. a. [f. STRETCH v. + -ED¹.]

  1.  Extended to the full length, not bent or flexed. Of a limb: Thrust out from the body. Also with out, forth.

1518.  H. Watson, Hist. Oliver of Castile (Roxb.), Q 1. He … ranne to hym with stratched armes and embraced hym.

1535.  Coverdale, Ps. cxxxv. 12. With a mightie hande and a stretched out arme.

a. 1566.  R. Edwards, Damon & Pithias (1571), D iv b. A pledge you did require…, For which, with heart and stretched handes, most humble thankes I geue.

1656.  Flecknoe, Diarium, 28. Now Chantecleer with stretcht-out wings, The glad approach of Phœbus sings.

1692.  Sir W. Hope, Fencing-Master, 148. Keep a streight point towards his face with a stretched arme.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, III. 320. At length rebuff’d, they leave their mangled Prey, And their stretch’d Pinions to the Skies display.

1760.  R. Lloyd, Actor, 97. The sudden whirl, stretch’d leg, and lifted staff, Which please the vulgar.

1846.  Trench, Miracles, 459. The stretched forth hands are the hands extended upon either side on the transverse bar of the cross.

1847.  Tennyson, Princess, II. 356. Jewels five-words long That on the stretch’d forefinger of all Time Sparkle for ever.

1856.  Susan Warner, Hills of Shatemuc, vi. He yielded his brother’s [letter] again to her stretched-out hand.

  2.  Of the neck, throat: Extended or expanded unduly or abnormally. Also with out.

1557.  Phaër, Æneid, VII. (1558), V viiij. As swannes … With stretchid neckes, their melody they yelde.

1659.  W. Chamberlayne, Pharonnida, III. i. 306. An ill-boding Note Sent from a fatal Ravens stretcht-out Throat.

1666.  W. Spurstow, Spiritual Chym., 89. Gospel Mysteries, which Angells with stretched out necks have more desire to pry into, then ability perfectly to understand.

1780.  Cowper, Progr. Error, 380. The gosling pair, With awkward gait, stretch’d neck, and silly stare.

1845.  Browning, How they brought the good News, vi. For one heard the quick wheeze Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering knees.

  3.  Of material, a line, etc.: Extended, spread out, drawn out so as to be tight. Hence fig. of a receptacle: Strained in capacity, filled to the utmost.

1605[?].  Drayton, Poems, To Virginian Voy., 10. Britans … quickly aboard bestowe you, And with a merry gale swell your stretch’d sayle.

c. 1681.  Duke, Review, 96. [He] Swell’d his stretch’d coffers with o’er-flowing gold.

1832.  Brewster, Nat. Magic, viii. 193. If … we strew the sand over a stretched membrane, the sand will form itself into figures.

1840.  in Newton’s Lond. Jrnl., Conj. Ser. XVI. 361. When India rubber is introduced, it is in the stretched or non-elastic state.

1889.  Brinsmead, Hist. Pianoforte, 40. The vibrations of stretched strings.

1906.  Westm. Gaz., 28 July, 6/3. You walk the stretched rope.

  b.  Of the senses: Tense.

1800.  Ht. Lee, Canterb. T. (ed. 2), III. 34. That profound stillness under which the stretched senses seem to ache.

  4.  Of language, ideas, prerogative, etc.: Strained beyond natural or proper limits.

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonn., xvii. 12. So should … your true rights be termd a Poets rage, And stretched miter of an Antique song.

1674.  N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 71. If this answer seems harsh or stretched, we shall easily slacken and soften it by a clearer Instance.

a. 1711.  Ken, Psyche, Poet. Wks. 1721, IV. 225. Say, if your stretch’d Imaginations find More horrid Monsters than foul human kind.

1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., 95. They therefore take up, one day, the most violent and stretched prerogative, and another time the wildest democratic ideas of freedom.

1833.  Lamb, Elia, Product. Mod. Art. They satisfy our most stretched and craving conceptions of the glories of the antique world.

  b.  Of life: Drawn out beyond the normal period.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 61. And thou [Nestor] most reuerend for thy stretcht-out life.