stretch out meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

stretch out

verbalso spelled stretch-out

Etymology From stretch + out.

To lie fully extended.

My cat likes stretching out in front of the fire.

To extend (something) fully, in space, time or use.

You have to stretch your presentation out another two minutes.
Please don't stretch out your sweater by pulling it on and off carelessly.

1 more example

We need to stretch the water supply out as long as we can.

Derived terms: stretch-out, stretchout

stretch-out

noun

Etymology Deverbal from stretch out.

A practice of industrial operation, especially in the textile industry, by which workers are required to do additional work without a proportional increase in wages.

The strike committee's statement today […] said the “stretchout system has become a scourge and the principal weapon used by the employers to beat the workers into subjection[.]” […] Of the stretch-out, the committee declared: / “We are sick and tired of listening to people tell us that there is nothing we can do about the stretch-out. […]”1934 August 22, “Ways to Avert Textile Strike Come to Front”, in Chattanooga Daily Times, volume 65, number 249, Chattanooga, Tenn., page 2:

A stretch limousine.

As time progressed, the Gray Line increased its limo fleet, converted the stretchouts into passenger vehicles (later widely emulated), and brought the first sightseeing buses to the Islands.2004, Robert C. Allen, Creating Hawai'i Tourism: A Memoir, page 118: