astretch

adv

1. (not-comparable)Stretched out, extended.

   “A thing half dead, with weary arms astretch / For anything to cling to”

   “My second mate was standing […] with his short, thick legs astretch, for the gale had left a considerable swell behind it,”

   “1912, Saki (H. H. Munro), “The Music on the Hill” in The Chronicles of Clovis, London: John Lane, p. 153, Astretch in a pool of mud was an enormous sow,”

   “This time I heard something new in the beat of the drums, a trip-hammer knock that sent my heart racing, a stutter that made me choke and grin, that set my heels tapping, my toes astretch.”

2. (not-comparable)Straining to perceive, alert (of sensory organs or mental faculties).

   “1833, Hamlet Wood, The Negro: An Historical Poem […] describing the unchristian and wicked principle and practices of slavery, Burslem, UK: for the author, p. 41, […] with attentive gaze, As winds dispelled the dark’ning haze, My eyes astretch—and all my mind afloat, To learn what sort of beings filled the boat;”

   “At the same moment every faculty is keenly astretch for further information which may aid in the conclusion he must come to before he stirs hand or foot.”

   “And when, very late, I heard a car coming up the zigzag I jumped to my feet, nerves instantly astretch,”

   “Undoubtedly the old bag had been hovering just inside her own doorway, ears astretch to catch his fairy footstep.”