stretcher
English
Etymology
stretch + -er
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈstɹɛt͡ʃə/
- (US) enPR: strĕchʹər, IPA(key): /ˈstɹɛt͡ʃɚ/
Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛtʃə(ɹ)
Noun
stretcher (plural stretchers)
- One who, or that which, stretches.
- A simple litter designed to carry a sick, injured, or dead person.
- 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XIV, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 153:
- This done, he sank on to a stretcher, and glanced meditatively about the room.
- 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC:
- The goal also cost the Blues the services of Luiz, who was injured in attempting to clear and was taken off on a stretcher and replaced by Gary Cahill.
- 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:
- There, characteristically, he refused to be carried on a stretcher, saying he was too heavy for nurses. He walked in with their support.
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- A frame on which a canvas is stretched for painting.
- 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, Sydney: Ure Smith, published 1962, OCLC 751607287, page 48:
- A twelve-by-fourteen canvas would not pin in his box, so he had to make a stretcher for it, and very neatly he made it, out of strips of butter-box.
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- A device to stretch shoes or gloves.
- A brick laid with the longest side exposed (compare header).
- 1857, John Ewart, The Agriculturist's Assistant:
- The quoins should be two feet long and one foot broad on the bed, and regularly built, stretcher and header alternately
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- (architecture) A piece of timber used in building.
- (slang) A lie; an overstretching of the truth.
- (nautical) A board against which a rower places his feet.
- 1884, J. W. Collins, Bulletin of the United States National Museum: Great International Fisheries Exhibition, page 703:
- The jointed stretcher is used in place of the sectional bottom board, with two sideboards, one each side of stretcher. The boat set up this way only weights 20 pounds, and makes a very convenient boat for trout-fishing, duck-hunting, or exploring in ponds or streams where the paddle will do as well as the oars.
- 1900, Alfred Edward Thomas Watson, The Young Sportsman, page 479:
- Directly the oar has been disengaged from the water, all pressure on the stretcher ceases, and the strain of the recovery of the body is eased by a slight pull with the feet on the straps of the stretcher.
- 1909, Samuel McSkimin, The History and Antiquities of the County of the Town of Carrickfergus, from the Earliest Records Till 1839, page 362:
- Betwean each beam of the boat is also fastened a piece of timber called a stretcher or footspur, against which they place their feet when rowing, to enable them to have a more complete command of their oar.
- 2003, J. Alswang, The South African Dictionary of Sport, page 203:
- Each rower's feet are set in shoes which are secured in the boat in a stretcher (or foot board) set into a fixed position to suit the length of the rower's legs.
- 2014, Sean Mcgrail, Ancient Boats in North-West Europe, page 80:
- […] these seem to indicate a thwart, foot-timber (stretcher), thole-pin combination for rowing.
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- One of the rods in an umbrella, attached at one end to one of the ribs, and at the other to the tube sliding upon the handle.
- (obsolete) A penis, especially a long penis.
- 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], OCLC 731622352:
- When our mutual trance was a little over, and the young fellow had withdrawn that delicious stretcher, with which he had most plentifully drowned all thoughts of revenge in the sense of actual pleasure, the widen'd wounded passage refunded a stream of pearly liquids, which flowed down my thighs, mixed with streaks of blood
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Derived terms
- stretcher-bearer
- stretcher case
Translations
simple litter designed to carry a sick, injured, or dead person
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frame on which a canvas is stretched for painting
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device to stretch shoes or gloves
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brick laid with the longest side exposed
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piece of timber
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
stretcher (third-person singular simple present stretchers, present participle stretchering, simple past and past participle stretchered)
- (transitive) To carry (an injured person) on a stretcher.
Translations
to carry on a stretcher
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References
stretcher in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- (a lie): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary
Anagrams
- restretch
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from English stretcher.
Pronunciation
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: stret‧cher
Noun
stretcher m (plural stretchers, diminutive stretchertje n)
- stretcher
Synonyms
- veldbed