overstretch

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
19
Words With Friends
20
Letters
11

Definition of overstretch

3 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. To stretch too far.
    “The idle triumphes, maskes, lasciuious showes And prodigall gifts bestowed on Gaueston, Haue drawne thy treasure drie, and made thee weake, The murmuring commons ouerstretched hath.”
    “1640, Charles I of England, Speech given to the Lords and Commons, at the Benquetting-House in White-Hall, 25 January, 1640, in The Works of King Charles the Martyr, London: Ric[hard] Chiswell, p. 169, If some of [the Bishops] have overstretched their power, and incroached too much upon the Temporalty, if it be so, I shall not be unwilling these things should be redressed and reformed […]”
    “[…] outwardly in Oyls or Oyntments, it mightily helps such members as are out of joynt or overstretched.”
    “1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Dublin: Whitestone et al., Volume 1, Lecture 16, p. 380, How far a Hyperbole, supposing it properly introduced, may be safely carried without overstretching it; what is the proper measure and boundary of this figure, cannot, as far as I know, be ascertained by any precise rule.”
See all 3 definitions

verb

  1. To stretch too far.
    “The idle triumphes, maskes, lasciuious showes And prodigall gifts bestowed on Gaueston, Haue drawne thy treasure drie, and made thee weake, The murmuring commons ouerstretched hath.”
    “1640, Charles I of England, Speech given to the Lords and Commons, at the Benquetting-House in White-Hall, 25 January, 1640, in The Works of King Charles the Martyr, London: Ric[hard] Chiswell, p. 169, If some of [the Bishops] have overstretched their power, and incroached too much upon the Temporalty, if it be so, I shall not be unwilling these things should be redressed and reformed […]”
    “[…] outwardly in Oyls or Oyntments, it mightily helps such members as are out of joynt or overstretched.”
    “1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Dublin: Whitestone et al., Volume 1, Lecture 16, p. 380, How far a Hyperbole, supposing it properly introduced, may be safely carried without overstretching it; what is the proper measure and boundary of this figure, cannot, as far as I know, be ascertained by any precise rule.”
  2. To stretch over something.

noun

  1. The act of stretching something too far or beyond available resources.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English overstrecchen, corresponding to over- + stretch. Compare Dutch overstrekken (“to overstretch”), German überstrecken (“to overstretch”).

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9-letter words

6 words

8-letter words

13 words

7-letter words

53 words

6-letter words

109 words

5-letter words

18 words

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