[f. STRETCH v. + -ING1.] The action or an act of the verb. Also with advs., forth, out.
c. 1375. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 127. A þousand ȝeer ben to him as ȝisterday; and, shortly, al þing þat was or ever shal be hereafter is present unto him, ffor streeching of his longe beying.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxiii. (1495), 131. By stretchynge of the Iowes the frogge makyth his noyse.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., IV. iii. 431. Not so that the thing or gouernaunce wirchith or makith bi his kinde eny strecching into the yuel, but that [etc.].
1560. Bible (Genev.), Isa. viii. 8. And the stretching out of his wings shall fil the breadth of thy lande.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, IV. (1598), 399. With a painfull stretching, and forced yawning.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIX. iv. 357. After they had been maimed and lamed before with stretching upon the racke.
1835. Hebert, Engin. & Mech. Encycl., I. 407. Previously to the rovings receiving their last reduction on the spinning frame, they undergo a process called stretching.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxii. The Masters Crummles … evinced, by various half-suppressed yawns and stretchings of their limbs, an obvious inclination to retire for the night.
1855. Dunglison, Med. Lex., s.v. Pandiculation, In the state of health, stretching occurs before and after sleep; especially when we are fatigued.
1897. C. T. Davis, Manuf. Leather, xxvi. (ed. 2), 409. The above process … acts as a preservative and stops all further stretching, one of the disadvantages of new belts.
† b. Stretching out: extent. Obs.–0
1530. Palsgr., 277/1. Stretchyng out of a thyng, estendue.
c. attrib. and Comb., as stretching-force, -frame, -machine, -pulley, -roller, -string; stretching-board, (a) a board used to lie upon in callisthenic exercises; (b) a flat board upon which a corpse is laid out before being placed in a coffin; stretching-bond, a bond (see BOND sb.1 13 a) in which stretchers only (and not headers) are used; stretching-carriage, a tenter in the form of a carriage; stretching-course, a course of bricks or stones laid with their length in the direction of the wall; stretching-iron = STRETCHER 4 c; stretching-mule = STRETCHER-mule; stretching-room, space in which to stretch (the limbs); † stretching-sticks, a glove-stretcher; stretching-stone Building, a stone set in the position of a stretcher; † stretching-torture, torture upon the rack.
1825. Jamieson, Streiking-Burd, *Stretching-Burd.
1843. Thackeray, Ravenswing, iv. Who knows but at that moment Lady Bell was at work with a pair of her dumb namesakes, and Lady Sophy lying flat on a stretching-board?
1847. H. Miller, First impr., xiii. (1857), 221. He had become as true a corpse as the one whose stretching-board he had usurped.
1805. in Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl. (1838), I. 330/1. *Stretching bond is where the longitudinal direction of the bricks is parallel with the face of the wall.
1876. in Textile Colourist, III. 207. The series of tenters or *stretching carriages may … be so arranged that the fabric is stretched … by any given number of the tenters.
1693. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 261. I would advise in the *Stretching courses, wherein you lay stretching on both sides the Wall next the Line, so also to lay stretching in the middle of the Wall.
1783. Phil. Trans., LXXIV. 14. The steening [of the well] … consisted of two stretching courses of bricks.
1900. Jrnl. Soc. Dyers, XVI. 11. Such a *stretching force as has been hitherto customary.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 383. Although this is called the *stretching-frame, the yarn is not stretched, but merely undergoes a further process of drawing and spinning.
1896. F. B. Carpenter, in Peterson Mag. (Philad.), N.S. VI. 242/2. The ‘stretching’ frame [for the canvas of a picture], nine feet by fourteen feet six inches, put together.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 377. The *stretching iron, is a flat plate of iron or copper, fully a fourth of an inch thick at top, and thinning off at bottom in a blunt edge.
1851–4. Tomlinson’s Cycl. Useful Arts (1867), II. 37/2. The stretching or softening iron … is an upright plate … mounted upon an upright beam.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1190. *Stretching machine. Cotton goods and other textile fabrics,… are prepared for the market by being stretched in a proper machine, which lays all their warp and woof yarns in parallel positions. Ibid. (1835), Philos. Manuf., 40. The fine bobbin and fly-roving frame … can do a certain part of the work formerly done by the *stretching mule.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. Plate xiv. This … machine … is set a-going, or stopped, at pleasure, by a *stretching pulley.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 196. The tension or *stretching-roller has its axle mounted in the segment-racks.
1895. M. Hewlett, Earthwork out of Tuscany, 10. Twenty-four legs, and urgent need of *stretching room [in the railway-carriage] as the night wore on.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 360/2. In the Sinister side, are the Glovers *stretching Sticks in Salter.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 981. a is the … heading stone; and b, the … *stretching stone.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 195/2. Fidiculæ,… the *stretching stringes or cords of the racke.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 67. The strapado and the *stretching torture.
