Also 5 strecher, 8 streacher. [f. STRETCH v. + -ER1.]
I. One who or something that stretches.
1. One who stretches; spec. a worker employed in various industries to stretch fabrics.
c. 1420. ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 674. There were bosters, braggars, & brybores, Praters, fasers, strechers, & wrythers.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., XXI. 135. Yet his hopes enstild His strength, the stretcher of Vlysses string.
1721. Wodrow, Hist. Ch. Scot. (1829), II. II. iv. 126. When things are stretched too far, they break to the hurt of the stretcher.
1820. J. Brown, Hist. Brit. Churches, I. vii. 213. Arminian stretchers of the royal prerogative were caressed and preferred.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., vii. The scraper of chins hath no great love for the stretcher of throats.
1861. Internat. Exhib. 1862, Alph. Lists Trades, 39. Stretchers.
1881. Instr. Census Clerks (1885), 54. Carver, Gilder:… Stretcher (Canvas). Ibid., 60. Woollen Cloth Manufacture:… Stretcher. Ibid., 67.
2. An exaggerated story or yarn; chiefly euphemistically or jocularly, a lie.
1674. [J. Patrick], Refl. Devot. Rom. Ch., 416. Any story of a Cock and a Bull, will serve their turns to found a Festival upon,… though the circumstances are never so improbable. This of removing the Rock is a pretty stretcher.
1677. S. Herne, Acc. Charterhouse, v. 29. Now listen to a visible Stretcher.
1825. Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Stretcher, an untruth; a softer term for a falsehood.
1840. E. E. Napier, Scenes & Sports For. Lands, II. vi. 215. This may, perhaps, be a stretcher; but, however, it is certain that [etc.].
1855. Ogilvie, Suppl., Stretcher, a notorious lie. (Local.)
1889. J. K. Jerome, Three Men, xii. 196. When the pipes are lit, and the boys are telling stretchers about the dangers they have passed through.
II. Technical senses.
† 3. Falconry. A toe of a hawk or falcon. Obs.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Hawking, a viii. The Clees that are uppon the medyll strecheris ye shall call the loong Sengles.
1575. Turberv., Falconrie, 55. She hath no great scales upon hir legges, unlesse it be a fewe that beginne behinde the three stretchers.
1677. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., II. 207. The Haggard…. A large wide Foot, with slender Stretchers. Ibid., 208. Of the Barbary-Faulcon … with long Talons and Stretchers.
4. An instrument or appliance for expanding material, making it taut, removing its wrinkles, and the like.
1532. More, Confut. Barnes, VIII. Wks. 1557, 800/1. Stretchyng oute hys wryncles with the stretching them vppon the stretcher or tenter hookes of the crosse.
1774. in Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Music (1871), 9. [The silk strings] are then to be put on a stretcher that they may dry in a proper tension.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 382. The cotton, or … roving, is taken out and wound upon a bobbin, and … carried to a machine called a stretcher.
1838. in Newton’s Lond. Jrnl., Conj. Ser. (1840), XVI. 65. Having determined the figure or design to be produced, the cloth … is spread … in lengths … over a stretcher of canvas, which stretcher is placed in a frame.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 5130. Marking-ink, linen stretcher, &c., with specimens.
b. A frame upon which an artist’s canvas is spread and drawn tight by means of corner-pieces or wedges. See also quot. 1875.
1847. Man. Oil-Painting, 48. There are, however, certain sizes [of canvas] which are always kept on hand at the shops, ready mounted on stretchers.
1867. Trollope, Chron. Barset, II. lx. 177. The rent canvas fell and fluttered upon the stretcher.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Stretcher, a cornerpiece for distending a canvas frame.
c. Leather-manuf. (a) = STAKE sb.1 5 b; (b) a hand-tool used in finishing leather.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 767. [The skins] are dried with the fleece outermost,… and are finished upon the stretcher.
1872. Saddlers’ Gaz., 1 Dec., 212/1. The hide … is then turned over and the hair side moistened with water and rubbed with a copper stretcher until it is nearly dry.
d. An instrument for easing the fit of boots, gloves, hats, etc.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Stretcher,… an instrument for easing boots or gloves.
1885. Harper’s Mag., Feb., 449. She was manipulating the pretty little pair of stretchers.
5. A bar serving as a stay or brace.
a. A buttress in masonry; a tie-beam in joinery; in trench timbering, a temporary strut.
1774. Gostling, Walk Canterb., xxxi. 136. There seems to have been some failing in the south-west pillar, and … care has been … taken to prevent any ill consequences of it by adding stretchers of stone-work on all sides to stiffen it…. The stretchers are very substantial and deep walls of stone pierced in such patterns as make them … an ornament: They are carried on arches from this pillar to two other principal ones.
a. 1805. Robison, Syst. Mech. Philos. (1822), I. 669. The struts which carry the king-post spring from those points of the stretcher where it rests on the strut below.
1869. C. Knight, Mechanician, 67. The class of columns represented by Fig. 130 are used also as stays, and in the horizontal position; they are in such cases named stretchers, and should be forged as nearly as possible to the intended form.
b. A bar or rod used as a tie or brace in the framework of an article; esp. a cross-piece between the handles of a plow or the legs of a chair.
1844. H. Stephens, Book of Farm, I. 413. The stretchers which support and retain the handles [of the plough] at their due distance apart.
1846. Holtzapffel, Turning, II. 725. There is a central rod or stretcher [to the frame saw], to which are mortised two end pieces that have a slight power of rotation on the stretcher.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 196. The ordinary [Embroidery] Frames are made of four pieces of wood, the two upright pieces of which are called Bars,… and two horizontal pieces, called Stretchers.
1902. [see stretcher bar c in 12].
1905. C. G. Harper, Oxf. Road, I. 125. Four men thus working will ‘get out’ the timber [beech] and turn it into legs or rails—‘stretchers’ as they call them in the trade—at the rate of four gross a day.
c. A bar that keeps apart the traces between every two horses in a team.
1828. Carr, Craven Gloss.
1852. C. W. Hoskyns, Talpa, xvi. 133. The fore-horse of a wagon-team turned suddenly … into the high-road, grazing Mr. Greening’s unspurred foot with the point of the leader’s stretcher.
d. Naut. (See quot.)
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Stretchers.… Also cross-pieces placed between a boat’s sides to keep them apart when hoisted up and griped.
e. Mining. A prop or sprag.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-Mining, 244.
6. A bar or rod used to expand and to keep expanded something collapsible.
a. A jointed or sliding rod used to spread the head or legs of a thing, esp. each of the rods pivoted at the ends to the ribs and the sleeve that slides upon the stick of an umbrella.
1843. Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 136. Whalebone is now principally used for the stretchers for umbrellas.
1857. Repert. Patent Invent., June, 511. Samuel Fox,… for heating … ribs and stretchers of umbrellas and parasols.
1866. Rock, in Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Opt., etc. Instrum. (1875), 515. For tripod stands I employ three elongating stretchers converging to a point in the middle (when the legs are spread); they are formed of brass tubes sliding one within the other.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Stretcher.… 5. (Vehicle.) A jointed rod by whose extension the carriage bows are separated and expanded, so as to spread the canopy or hood.
b. A stick or each of the sticks used to keep a fishing net expanded.
1823. J. F. Cooper, Pioneers, xxiii. Benjamin prided himself greatly on his skill in throwing the net…. At length a loud splash in the water, as he threw away the ‘staff,’ or ‘stretcher’ … announced that the boat was returning.
1884. G. F. Braithwaite, Salmonidæ of Westmorld., vi. 23. Lighter sticks or stretchers are attached to the top and bottom cord which keep the net extended.
c. A piece of wood or metal used to spread the clews of a hammock.
In recent Dicts.
7. A foot-rest in a rowing-boat. (See quots. 1769, 1898.)
1609. Dekker, Ravens Alm., B 2. Any Sculer, whose legs get his liuing by a Stretcher, will not deny it.
1697. Dryden, Æneis, X. 417. They tug at ev’ry Oar; and ev’ry Stretcher bends.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Stretcher, a sort of staff fixed athwart the bottom of a boat, for the rower to place his feet against, in order to communicate a greater effort to his oar.
1834. Marryat, P. Simple, xxxi. Swinburne appeared … followed by the rest of the boat’s crew, armed with the boat’s stretchers.
1898. Encycl. Sport, II. 298/1. (Rowing) Stretcher, a board placed slopingly at a right angle across the boat in front of the oarsman, upon which he braces his feet.
8. A kind of litter composed of two poles separated by cross-bars upon which canvas is stretched, used to transport sick or wounded persons.
1845. Ann. Reg., 380/1. After the body was discovered Fletcher went for the stretcher.
1875. Encycl. Brit., I. 668/2. The ambulance conveyances authorised for use in the British army are … 1. Conveyances carried by the hands of bearers, called stretchers; 2. Conveyances wheeled by men, wheeled stretchers, [etc.].
1892. Bierce, In Midst of Life, 129. Two were hospital attendants and carried a stretcher.
9. A folding bed or bedstead chiefly for camp or hospital use. Also pl. the trestles for a bed.
1841. Marryat, Poacher, xlv. They sat down on the stretchers upon which the bed had been laid [in the prison cell] during the night.
1893. Selous, Trav. S. E. Africa, 56. He gave me … a stretcher to sleep on in one of the empty chambers.
b. A flat board on which a corpse is laid out preparatory to coffining. ? Sc.
1850. Ogilvie; and in some later Dicts.
10. Something laid lengthways.
a. Building. A brick or stone laid with its length in the direction of the wall. Also Fortif., a sod laid in a similar position.
1693. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 260. If the Header on one side of the Wall, toothed as much as the Stretcher on the other side, it would be a stronger Toothing.
1693. J. Houghton, Collect. Improv. Husb., No. 74, ¶ 3. A Brick-wall of a Foot and half thick is commonly made by Stretchers and Headers.
1725. [see HEADER 5].
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L. (1793), § 82. The long pieces or Stretchers were retained between two Headers or bond pieces.
1839. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., II. 430/2. The front is to be of … stone, laid header and stretcher alternately.
1851, 1884. [see HEADER 5].
b. ? A horizontal branch (see quots.).
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 162. Great Plantations of Hazel, that … are also of vast Service to the Thatcher, by its Stretchers, Sprays, and Withs.
1886. W. Somerset Word-bk., s.v., In ‘making’ a hedge certain growing stakes are chopped half through, laid down lengthwise on the hedge, and fastened down with a crook. Earth is then thrown upon them, and they root afresh. These are the stretchers.
11. Angling. The artificial fly at the extremity of a casting line to which two or more flies are attached.
1837. J. Kirkbride, Northern Angler, 3. The first dropper ought to be about a yard from the stretcher, or tail-fly.
III. attrib. and Comb.
12. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 5 b) stretcher-bolt, -tube; stretcher-bar (a) the bar that is set across a level as a support for a rock-drill; (b) Leather-manuf. an appliance for stretching hides transversely; (c) (see quot. 1902); stretcher-bearer (see quot.); stretcher-bed, -bedstead, a folding bed, chiefly for camp or barrack use (cf. 9); stretcher-brick (see 10 a); stretcher-fly (see 11); stretcher-iron Leather-manuf. = STAKE sb.1 5 b; stretcher-man = stretcher-bearer; stretcher-mule (see quot.); stretcher-party Mil., a party of men equipped with stretchers and appliances for assisting and removing the wounded; stretcher-pole, a pole of an ambulance stretcher.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 448/1. In driving a level with the Darlington drill it is usual to fix the *stretcher bar horizontally across the level so as to command the upper part of the face.
1897. C. T. Davis, Manuf. Leather, xli. (ed. 2), 544. A stretcher-bar of suitable form for stretching the hides transversely.
1902. Lockwood’s Dict. Mech. Engin. (ed. 3), Stretcher Bar, or Stretcher, a long bar or bolt shouldered near each end, and used for the purpose of maintaining A frames and side frames at a fixed distance apart and perfectly rigid.
1876. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., 412/1. *Stretcher Bearers, men … whose special duty … is to carry the wounded from the battle-field, to the ambulance wagons.
1842. Mrs. Gore, Fascination, 21. In a gloomy inner room stood a common *stretcher-bed.
1888. Daily News, 5 June, 6/2. The life of the emergency men in camp … is luxurious…. They have stretcher beds and blankets to cover them.
1895. Army & Navy Co-op. Price-list, 442. Barrack Furniture and Camp Equipment. Folding *Stretcher Bedstead, Iron frame and legs.
1844. H. Stephens, Book of Farm, I. 420. The right handle [of the plough] is formed in one bar,… and it is connected to the left handle by the *stretcher-bolts.
1867. Musgrave, Nooks & Corners Old France, I. 80. A perilous mode of scamping off their work, which among fifty *stretcher bricks, exhibited not two headers.
1883. J. A. Henshall, in Century Mag., July, 379/1. ‘I have him!’ he exclaimed, as a bass rose and snapped the *stretcher fly before it fully settled on the water.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 768. The clean skins after being dried, are finished first on the *stretcher-iron, and then on the herse or stretching frame.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., vii. (ed. 2), 247. If a couple of spare limbers are available the S. A. A. might be placed upon them and drawn by the spare-ammunition and *stretcher-men.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stretcher-mule, a mule adapted to stretch and twist fine rovings of cotton.
1884. Mil. Engineering, I. II. 112. The strength of the *stretcher party will be determined by the principal medical officer.
1892. Kipling, Barrack-room Ballads, Oonts. We socks ’im with a *stretcher-pole.
1844. Stephens, Book of Farm, I. 668. The beam and handles are further connected by *stretcher-tubes and bolts.
