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overstretch

verb

  1. stretch excessively
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Wiktionary

noun

Etymology: From Middle English overstrecchen, corresponding to over- + stretch. Compare Dutch overstrekken (“to overstretch”), German überstrecken (“to overstretch”).

  1. The act of stretching something too far or beyond available resources.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English overstrecchen, corresponding to over- + stretch. Compare Dutch overstrekken (“to overstretch”), German überstrecken (“to overstretch”).

  1. To stretch too far.

    The idle triumphes, maskes, lasciuious showes And prodigall gifts bestowed on Gaueston, Haue drawne thy treasure drie, and made thee weake, The murmuring commons ouerstretched hath.

    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, 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 […]

  2. To stretch over something.