| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈoutstretch, n.
[out- 7.]
1. The act or fact of stretching out.
1863Mrs. Whitney Faith Gartney xi. (ed. 18) 94 Brought her thoughts home again from their far outstretch. 1871Browning Balaust. 2486 Its outstretch of beneficence Shall have a speedy ending on the earth.
2. An outstretched tract; extension, extent.
1864Gd. Words 12/1 This south-western outstretch of England. 1918A. Symons Cities & Sea-Coasts iii. 312 Grass, or any soil, was but a rare interval between a broken and distracted outstretch of grey rock.
3. The distance to which anything stretches out.
1888O. Crawfurd Sylvia Arden 308 A passage..little broader than the outstretch of my two arms.
▪ II. outˈstretch, v.
[out- 15, 15 b, 17, 18.]
1. trans. To stretch out or forth. (Chiefly poetic.)
a1366Chaucer Rom. Rose 1515 And doun on knees he gan to falle, And forth his heed and nekke out straughte To drinken of that welle a draughte. 1591Spenser Muiopot. 87 So did this flie outstretch his fearefull hornes. c1614Sir W. Mure Dido & æneas iii. 236 Ships..With wings owt⁓streatch't, all vnder equall saile. 1823Byron Island iv. ix, Abelard..his arms outstretch'd. 1877Browning Agamemnon 1108 Hand after hand she outstretches.
2. To extend in area or content; to expand.
1647H. More Song of Soul ii. App. xlv, Wherefore this wide and wast Vacuity, Which endlesse is outstretched thorough all. 1687Sc. Metr. Ps. cxxxvi. 6 Who did outstretch This Earth so great and wide. a1758Ramsay Fox turned Preacher 48 [He] preach'd, And with loud cant his lungs out-stretch'd. 1840Dickens Barn. Rudge iii, The great city, which lay outstretched before him.
3. To stretch to its limit, to strain.
1607Shakes. Timon v. iii. 3 Tymon is dead, who hath out⁓stretcht his span. 1645Milton Tetrach. Wks. 1738 I. 251 Outstretching the most rigorous nerves of Law and Rigour.
4. To stretch beyond (a limit, etc.).
1597Beard Theatre God's Judgem. (1612) 277 So farre did his impudencie outstretch the bond of reason. 1839Bailey Festus i. (1852) 6 My mercy doth outstretch the universe. 1869J. Eadie Comm. Gal. 194 The divine and illimitable will always outstretch its [dogma's] precision and logic.
†5. To outstrip in a race. Obs.
a1642Sir W. Monson Naval Tracts ii. (1704) 270/1 Grey⁓hounds strove to..outstretch one another in a Course. 1703Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. ii. (1709) 94 They..out-stretch the Speed of Gunpowder, and Distance Light and Lightning. |