| 释义 |
at a stretch1In one continuous period: I often had to work for over twenty hours at a stretch...- There is the possibility of continuous rain lashing the city for 10 hours or more at a stretch at least twice during this period.
- Nobody noticed that I didn't eat for eighteen or twenty hours at a stretch.
- At two points during my mission, I will wear blood pressure monitors on my arm and my fingers for twenty-four hours at a stretch.
2Only with difficulty or in extreme circumstances: it is aimed at one age group, adults, or, at a stretch, business studies students...- Mr Hoult said that at a stretch, local authorities could cope with a disaster on the scale of Lockerbie.
- Now, had it not been, we would have done one of three things: moved somewhere else with a better primary, fiddled the system to get her into a good school in a different catchment area or, at a stretch, gone private.
- Its flexibility extends to its passengers too: it is capable of seating three people comfortably and four at a stretch, and is intended to make the point that it is wasteful to own a larger car when a smaller one will do.
See parent entry: stretch |