different between stretch vs wrench

English

Etymology

From Middle English strecchen, from Old English stre??an (“to stretch, hold out, extend, spread out, prostrate”), from Proto-West Germanic *strakkjan (“to stretch, make taut or tight”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)treg-, *streg-, *treg- (“stiff, rigid”). Cognate with West Frisian strekke, Dutch strekken (“to stretch, straighten”), German strecken (“to stretch, straighten, elongate”), Danish strække (“to stretch”), Swedish sträcka (“to stretch”), Dutch strak (“taut, tight”), Albanian shtriqem (“to stretch”). More at stark.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st??t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?

Verb

stretch (third-person singular simple present stretches, present participle stretching, simple past and past participle stretched or (obsolete) straught or (obsolete) straight)

1. (transitive) To lengthen by pulling.

2. (intransitive) To lengthen when pulled.
   • 1660, Robert Boyle, New Experiments Physico-Mechanical: Touching the Spring of the Air and their Effects

     The inner membrane […] because it would stretch and yield, remained unbroken.

3. (transitive) To pull tight.

4. (figuratively, transitive) To get more use than expected from a limited resource.

5. (figuratively, transitive) To make inaccurate by exaggeration.

6. (intransitive) To extend physically, especially from limit point to limit point.

7. (intransitive, transitive) To extend one’s limbs or another part of the body in order to improve the elasticity of one's muscles

8. (intransitive) To extend to a limit point

9. (transitive) To increase.
10. (obsolete, colloquial) To stretch the truth; to exaggerate.

11. (nautical) To sail by the wind under press of canvas.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Ham. Nav. Encyc to this entry?)

12. (slang, transitive, archaic) To execute by hanging.
13. To make great demands on the capacity or resources of something.

Translations

See also

• pandiculate

Noun

stretch (plural stretches)

1. An act of stretching.

2. The ability to lengthen when pulled.

3. A course of thought which diverts from straightforward logic, or requires extraordinary belief or exaggeration.

4. A segment of a journey or route.

5. A segment or length of material.

6. (Britain, slang, archaic) A walk.
   • Evelyn Underhill, quoted in 2010, Evelyn Underhill, ?Carol Poston, The Making of a Mystic: New and Selected Letters of Evelyn Underhill (page 81)

     In the afternoon I went for a stretch into the country, & about 4 it cleared up pretty well, so I hurried back & we got a cart & drove to Bassano, a little town about 8 miles off, that we wanted to see.

7. (baseball) A quick pitching delivery used when runners are on base where the pitcher slides his leg instead of lifting it.
8. (baseball) A long reach in the direction of the ball with a foot remaining on the base by a first baseman in order to catch the ball sooner.
9. (informal) Term of address for a tall person.
10. (horse racing) The homestretch, the final straight section of the track leading to the finish.
11. A length of time.

    • After the harvest there was a stretch of clear dry weather, and the animals toiled harder than ever […]

    1. (Ireland) Extended daylight hours, especially said of the evening in springtime when compared to the shorter winter days.

    2. (sports) The period of the season between the trade deadline and the beginning of the playoffs.
    3. (slang) A jail or prison term.

       Synonym: stint

       1. (slang) A jail or prison term of one year's duration.
    4. A single uninterrupted sitting; a turn.
12. A stretch limousine.

Translations

Derived terms

Descendants

• Esperanto: stre?i

Further reading

• stretch at OneLook Dictionary Search

References

• (a walk): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

• strecht

English

Alternative forms

• (15^th century): wrenche; (15^th century): wrinche; (16^th century): wringe

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: r?nch IPA^(key): /??nt????/
• Rhymes: -?nt?

Etymology 1

From Middle English wrench, from Old English wren?, from Proto-Germanic *wrankiz (“a turning, twisting”). Compare German Rank (“plot, intrigue”).

Noun

wrench (plural wrenches)

1. A movement that twists or pulls violently; a tug. [from 16th c.]
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula Chapter 21

     With a wrench, which threw his victim back upon the bed as though hurled from a height, he turned and sprang at us.

2. An injury caused by a violent twisting or pulling of a limb; strain, sprain. [from 16th c.]
3. (obsolete) A trick or artifice. [from 8th c.]
   • c. 1210, MS. Cotton Caligula A IX f.246

     Mon mai longe liues wene; / Ac ofte him liedh the wrench.

4. (obsolete) Deceit; guile; treachery. [from 13th c.]
5. (obsolete) A turn at an acute angle. [from 16th c.]
6. (archaic) A winch or windlass. [from 16th c.]
7. (obsolete) A screw. [from 16th c.]
8. A distorting change from the original meaning. [from 17th c.]
9. (US) A hand tool for making rotational adjustments, such as fitting nuts and bolts, or fitting pipes; a spanner. [from 18th c.]
10. (Britain) An adjustable spanner used by plumbers.
11. A violent emotional change caused by separation. [from 19th c.]
12. (physics) In screw theory, a screw assembled from force and torque vectors arising from application of Newton's laws to a rigid body. [from 19th c.]
13. (obsolete) means; contrivance

    • But weighing one thing with another he gave Britain for lost; but resolved to make his profit of this business of Britain, as a quarrel for war; and that of Naples, as a wrench and mean for peace

14. In coursing, the act of bringing the hare round at less than a right angle, worth half a point in the recognised code of points for judging.

Synonyms

• (tool): spanner (UK, Australia)

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English wrenchen, from Old English wren?an, from Proto-Germanic *wrankijan?. Compare German renken.

Verb

wrench (third-person singular simple present wrenches, present participle wrenching, simple past and past participle wrenched)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To violently move in a turn or writhe. [from 11th c.]
2. (transitive) To pull or twist violently. [from 13th c.]

3. (transitive, obsolete) To turn aside or deflect. [from 13th c.]
4. (transitive, obsolete) To slander. [from 14th c.]
5. (transitive, obsolete) To tighten with or as if with a winch. [from 16th c.]
6. (transitive) To injure (a joint) by pulling or twisting. [from 16th c.]

7. (transitive) To distort from the original meaning. [from 16th c.]
8. (transitive, obsolete) To thrust a weapon in a twisting motion. [from 16th c.]
9. (intransitive, fencing, obsolete) To disarm an opponent by whirling his or her blade away. [from 18th c.]
10. (transitive) To rack with pain. [from 18th c.]
11. (transitive) To deprive by means of a violent pull or twist. [from 18th c.]
12. (transitive) To use the tool known as a wrench. [from 19th c.]

Translations

Further reading

• wrench on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Wrench on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons