astretch

English edit

Etymology edit

a- +‎ stretch

Adverb edit

astretch (not comparable)

Stretched out, extended.
- 1854, John Stanyan Bigg, Night and the Soul‎^[1], London: Groombridge, Scene 5, p. 69:
  A thing half dead, with weary arms astretch / For anything to cling to
- 1897, Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Striped Chest”, in The Green Flag and Other Stories of War and Sport‎^[2], London: Smith, Elder, published 1905, page 204:
  My second mate was standing […] with his short, thick legs astretch, for the gale had left a considerable swell behind it,
- 1912, Saki (H. H. Munro), “The Music on the Hill” in The Chronicles of Clovis, London: John Lane, p. 153,^[3]
  Astretch in a pool of mud was an enormous sow,
- 1987, Edith L. B. Turner, “The Fish Eagle”, in The Spirit and the Drum‎^[4], Tucson: University of Arizona Press, page 97:
  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.
Straining to perceive, alert (of sensory organs or mental faculties).
- 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,^[5]
  […] 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;
- 1897, Louis Robinson, Wild Traits in Tame Animals‎^[6], Edinburgh: William Blackwood, Introduction, pp. 19-20:
  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.
- 1958, Mary Stewart, chapter 9, in Nine Coaches Waiting‎^[7], New York: Fawcett Crest, published 1970, page 127:
  And when, very late, I heard a car coming up the zigzag I jumped to my feet, nerves instantly astretch,
- 1978, Nicolas Freeling, chapter 15, in The Night Lords,‎^[8], New York: Pantheon, page 63:
  Undoubtedly the old bag had been hovering just inside her own doorway, ears astretch to catch his fairy footstep.

Anagrams edit

chatters, ratchets