overstretch

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English overstrecchen, corresponding to over- +‎ stretch. Compare Dutch overstrekken (“to overstretch”), German überstrecken (“to overstretch”). === Pronunciation === Rhymes: -ɛtʃ === Verb === overstretch (third-person singular simple present overstretches, present participle overstretching, simple past and past participle overstretched) To stretch too far. 1640, Charles I of England, Speech given to the Lords and Commons, at the Benquetting-House in White-Hall, 25 January, 1640, in The Works of King Charles the Martyr, London: Ric[hard] Chiswell, p. 169,[1] If some of [the Bishops] have overstretched their power, and incroached too much upon the Temporalty, if it be so, I shall not be unwilling these things should be redressed and reformed […] 1783, Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Dublin: Whitestone et al., Volume 1, Lecture 16, p. 380,[3] How far a Hyperbole, supposing it properly introduced, may be safely carried without overstretching it; what is the proper measure and boundary of this figure, cannot, as far as I know, be ascertained by any precise rule. To stretch over something. ==== Derived terms ==== overstretched (adjective) ==== Translations ==== === Noun === overstretch (plural overstretches) The act of stretching something too far or beyond available resources.