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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

astretch en · ADV

Etymology

From a- + stretch.

Meanings

  1. (not-comparable) Stretched out, extended.
    • This time I heard something new in the beat of the drums, a trip-hammer knock that sent my heart racing, a stutter that made me choke and grin, that set my heels tapping, my toes astretch. 1987, Edith L. B. Turner, “The Fish Eagle”, in The Spirit and the Drum, Tucson: University of Arizona Press, page 97:
    • 1912, Saki (H. H. Munro), “The Music on the Hill” in The Chronicles of Clovis, London: John Lane, p. 153, Astretch in a pool of mud was an enormous sow,
    • A thing half dead, with weary arms astretch / For anything to cling to 1854, John Stanyan Bigg, Night and the Soul, London: Groombridge, Scene 5, p. 69:
    • My second mate was standing […] with his short, thick legs astretch, for the gale had left a considerable swell behind it, 1897, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Striped Chest”, in The Green Flag and Other Stories of War and Sport, London: Smith, Elder, published 1905, page 204:
  2. (not-comparable) Straining to perceive, alert (of sensory organs or mental faculties).
    • And when, very late, I heard a car coming up the zigzag I jumped to my feet, nerves instantly astretch, 1958, Mary Stewart, chapter 9, in Nine Coaches Waiting, New York: Fawcett Crest, published 1970, page 127:
    • At the same moment every faculty is keenly astretch for further information which may aid in the conclusion he must come to before he stirs hand or foot. 1897, Louis Robinson, Wild Traits in Tame Animals, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Introduction, pp. 19-20:
    • 1833, Hamlet Wood, The Negro: An Historical Poem […] describing the unchristian and wicked principle and practices of slavery, Burslem, UK: for the author, p. 41, […] with attentive gaze, As winds dispelled the dark’ning haze, My eyes astretch—and all my mind afloat, To learn what sort of beings filled the boat;
    • Undoubtedly the old bag had been hovering just inside her own doorway, ears astretch to catch his fairy footstep. 1978, Nicolas Freeling, chapter 15, in The Night Lords,, New York: Pantheon, page 63: