STRETCHING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does stretching mean? 

• STRETCHING (noun)
  The noun STRETCHING has 2 senses:

1. act of expanding by lengthening or widening

2. exercise designed to extend the limbs and muscles to their full extent

  Familiarity information: STRETCHING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STRETCHING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Act of expanding by lengthening or widening

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("stretching" is a kind of...):

enlargement; expansion (the act of increasing (something) in size or volume or quantity or scope)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "stretching"):

tension (the action of stretching something tight)

extension (act of stretching or straightening out a flexed limb)

Derivation:

stretch (make long or longer by pulling and stretching)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Exercise designed to extend the limbs and muscles to their full extent

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

stretch; stretching

Hypernyms ("stretching" is a kind of...):

exercise; exercising; physical exercise; physical exertion; workout (the activity of exerting your muscles in various ways to keep fit)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "stretching"):

pandiculation (yawning and stretching (as when first waking up))

Derivation:

stretch (extend one's limbs or muscles, or the entire body)

 Context examples 

“There's a friend!” said Mr. Peggotty, stretching out his pipe.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The house of the famous official was a fine villa with green lawns stretching down to the Thames.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“John!” said the sailor, stretching out his hand.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“Terse and to the point,” remarked Holmes, stretching his long, thin legs towards the fire.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then stretching himself upon his face and leaning his chin upon his hands, he made a careful study of the trampled mud in front of him.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The result was an extreme blurring and stretching of the X-ray light.

(NuSTAR sees rare blurring of black hole light, NASA)

They are believed to shear the magnetic fields, stretching them and carrying them around the planet.

(NASA's Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field, NASA)

They entered it in one of its lowest points, and drove for some time through a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Six known objects in the distant Kuiper Belt, a region of icy bodies stretching from Neptune outward toward interstellar space, all have elliptical orbits pointing in the same direction.

(The Super-Earth that Came Home for Dinner, NASA)

A stretching and opening of the cervical os during childbirth in preparation for delivery of the baby; the diameter is measured in centimeters.

(Cervical Dilation, NCI Thesaurus)