Search the Dictionary

To keep on the stretch, as a bow. [Obs.] The bow tortureth the string. Bacon.

that stood in great prosperitee And is yfallen out of high degree Into misery and endeth wretchedly. Chaucer. All our tragedies are of kings and princes. Jer. Taylor. tragedy is poetry in its deepest earnest; comedy is poetry in unlimited jest. Coleridge.

To place upon a tree; to fit with a tree; to stretch upon a tree; as, to tree a boot. See Tree, n., 3.

To have a particular direction; to run; to stretch; to tend; as, the shore of the sea trends to the southwest.

ossed by a double elastic fiber. The spider holds the thread at the apex of the web and stretches it tight, but lets go and springs the net when an insect comes in contact with it.

turn a flange (Mech.), to form a flange on, as around a metal sheet or boiler plate, by stretching, bending, and hammering, or rolling the metal. -- To turn against. (a) To direct against; as, to turn one's arguments against himself. (b) To make unfavorable or hostile to; as, to turn one's friends against him. -- To…

A harsh, quick sound, like that made by a stretched string when pulled and suddenly let go; as, the twang of a bowstring.

To stretch, as a skin over the head of a drum; to make into a drum or drumhead, or cause to act or sound like a drum. [Obs.] "Tympanized, as other saints of God were." Oley.

To deprive of blessings; to make wretched. [Obs.] Shak.

Not blest; excluded from benediction; hence, accursed; wretched. "Unblessed enchanter." Milton.

To separate, part, or open, as anything fastened with glue. She stretches, gapes, unglues her eyes, And asks if it be time to rise. Swift.

In a degree miserable or wretched; not happy; sad; sorrowful; as, children render their parents unhappy by misconduct.

Not blessed or happy; wretched; unfortunate. [Written also unsilly.] [Obs.] Chaucer. -- Un*se"li*ness, n. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Stretched out face upward; flat on the back. [Obs.] " He lay upright." Chaucer. Upright drill (Mach.), a drilling machine having the spindle vertical.

rchaic] "[/Angels] on the air plumy vans received him. " Milton. He wheeled in air, and stretched his vans in vain; His vans no longer could his flight sustain. Dryden.

To move to and fro, or from side to side, as a pendulum, an elastic rod, or a stretched string, when disturbed from its position of rest; to swing; to oscillate.

s from its position of equilibrium, when that equilibrium has been disturbed, as when a stretched cord or other body produces musical notes, or particles of air transmit sounds to the ear. The path of the particle may be in a straight line, in a circular arc, or in any curve whatever.

Base; vile; mean; depraved; as, a villainous person or wretch.

Full of woe; sorrowful; distressed with grief or calamity; afflicted; wretched; unhappy; sad. How many woeful widows left to bow To sad disgrace! Daniel.

The quality or state of being woeful; misery; wretchedness.