Dictionary

stretch-out en · NOUN

Etymology

Deverbal from stretch out.

Meanings

1. 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:
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:

Forms

Antonyms

work-to-rule · go-slow · slowdown

Synonyms

speedup