subs. (old cant).—1. A yard.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. STRETCH … The cove was lagged for prigging a peter with several STRETCH of dobbin from a drag.
2. (thieves’).—A year; THREE STRETCH = three years’ imprisonment.
1887. J. W. HORSLEY, Jottings from Jail, i. I did not fall again for a STRETCH. This time I got two moon for assaulting the reelers when canon.
1888. GREENWOOD, Undercurrents of London Life. ‘All right, Sam.’ ‘How much, Toby?’ ‘Three STRETCH,’ by which the sympathetic Sam knows his friend means ‘three years.’
1893. P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, xiv. Before you can open a paddin-ken, you must get a licence from the charpering carsey which lasts for a STRETCH.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 116. I wished I’d been doing a STRETCH, sir, the year that we nobbled the crack.
1900. GRIFFITHS, Fast and Loose, xix. You know me; if you don’t you ought, for I got you that last STRETCH in Tothill Fields.
3. (orig. university: now general).—A walk. TO STRETCH A LEG (or ONE’S LEGS) = to walk.
1653. WALTON, The Compleat Angler, 43. I have STRETCHED MY LEGS up Tottenham Hill to overtake you.
Verb. (old).—1. To hang; to SWING (q.v.); see LADDER. STRETCHING (STRETCHING-MATCH, or STRETCHING-BEE) = a hanging (B. E. and GROSE).
1623. MABBE, The Spanish Rogue (1630), i. 7. Though my owne father should STRETCH for it.
c. 1816. Old Song, ‘The Night before Larry Was STRETCHED’ [FARMER, Musa Pedestris (1896), 81].
| The rumbler jugg’d off from his feet, | |
| And he died with his face to the city. |
2. (old).—To exaggerate; to lie: ‘He STRETCHED hard’ = ‘He told a whistling lie’ (B. E. and GROSE). Hence STRETCHER = an exaggeration, a falsehood.
1847. J. M. FIELD, The Drama in Pokerville, 31. Whenever Mrs. Oscar Dust told a STRETCHER, he [old Waters] was expected to swear to it.
d. 1879. W. K. CLIFFORD, Lectures and Essays, I. 229. It is only by a STRETCH of language that we can be said to desire that which is inconceivable.
ON (or AT) A STRETCH, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Continuously; at one and the same time.
c. 1852. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), ed. Traits of American Humour. Chunky used to whistle three days and nights on a STRETCH.
1841. BULWER-LYTTON, Night and Morning, ii. 8. She could not entertain the child long ON A STRETCH.
1885. St. James’s Gazette, 23 Sept. Drivers and others frequently make twenty-four hours at a STRETCH.
TO STRETCH LEATHER, verb. phr. (venery).—To possess a woman: see RIDE. LEATHER = MUTTON (q.v.); LEATHER-STRETCHER = the penis: see PRICK and cf. KID-STRETCHER.
1653. URQUHART, Rabelais, I. vi. note. The vigour and STRETCHING-LEATHERNESS of the suffering part; for we see but very few women, however weakly they be, but what happily get over the condition you are in.
1678. COTTON, Scarronides, or, Virgil Travestie (1725), iv. 74.
| For if they once do come together, | |
| He’ll find that Dido’s REACEING LEATHER. |
TO STRETCH ONE’S LEGS ACCORDING TO THE COVERLET, verb. phr. (old).—To adapt oneself to circumstances; ‘to cut one’s coat according to the cloth’ (RAY).
TO STRETCH (or STRAIN) A POINT, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To exceed a limit: see POINT.
