What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Stretch vs Compression - What's the difference?

stretch | compression |

As nouns the difference between stretch and compression

is that stretch is an act of stretching while compression is an increase in density; the act of compressing, or the state of being compressed; compaction.

As a verb stretch

is to lengthen by pulling.

stretch

English

Verb

  • (label) To lengthen by pulling.
  • (label) To lengthen when pulled.
  • * Boyle
  • The inner membrane because it would stretch and yield, remained unbroken.
  • (label) To pull tight.
  • To get more use than expected from a limited resource.
  • To make inaccurate by exaggeration.
  • (label) To extend physically, especially from limit point to limit point.
  • * , chapter=1
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path […]. It twisted and turned,
  • To extend one’s limbs or another part of the body in order to improve the elasticity of one's muscles
  • (label) To extend to a limit point
  • (label) To increase.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 29, author=Neil Johnston, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Norwich 3-3 Blackburn , passage=Yakubu took advantage of John Ruddy's error to put the visitors back in front, with Chris Samba's header stretching their advantage.}}
  • To stretch the truth; to exaggerate.
  • a man apt to stretch in his report of facts
  • (label) To sail by the wind under press of canvas.
  • The ship stretched to the eastward.

    Noun

    (es)
  • An act of stretching.
  • I was right in the middle of a stretch when the phone rang.
    To say crossing the street was brave was quite a stretch.
  • The ability to lengthen when pulled.
  • That rubber band has quite a bit of stretch.
  • A course of thought which diverts from straightforward logic, or requires extraordinary belief.
  • It's a bit of a stretch to call Boris Karloff a comedian.
  • A segment of a journey or route.
  • It was an easy trip except for the last stretch , which took forever.
  • (label) A quick pitching delivery used when runners are on base where the pitcher slides his leg instead of lifting it.
  • (label) A long reach in the direction of the ball with a foot remaining on the base by a first baseman in order to catch the ball sooner.
  • A length of time.
  • He did a 7-year stretch in jail.
  • *
  • After the harvest there was a stretch of clear dry weather, and the animals toiled harder than ever
  • (label) A term of address for a tall person
  • * 2007 , Michael Farrell, Running with Buffalo
  • *:“Hey, Stretch ,” he shouted at a tall, spectacled co-worker, “turn the fucking station, will you? You know I can't stand Rush, and it's all they play on this one. If I hear those assholes whine 'Tom Sawyer' one more time, I may go on a fucking killing spree.
  • Derived terms

    {{der3, at full stretch , by a long stretch , cat stretch , outstretch , overstretch , seventh inning stretch , stretchable , stretch limo , stretch of the imagination , stretch mark , stretch out , stretch pants , stretcher , stretchy}}

    compression

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • an increase in density; the act of compressing, or the state of being compressed; compaction
  • the cycle of an internal combustion engine during which the fuel and air mixture is compressed
  • (computing) the process by which data is compressed
  • * {{quote-web
  • , year = 2011 , author = Marcelo A. Montemurro & Damián H. Zanette , title = Universal Entropy of Word Ordering Across Linguistic Families , site = PLoS ONE , url = http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0019875 , accessdate = 2012-09-26}}
    Due to the presence of long-range correlations in language [21], [22] it is not possible to compute accurate measures of the entropy by estimating block probabilities directly. More efficient nonparametric methods that work even in the presence of long-range correlations are based on the property that the entropy of a sequence is a lower bound to any lossless compressed version of it [15]. Thus, in principle, it is possible to estimate the entropy of a sequence by finding its length after being compressed by an optimal algorithm. In our analysis, we used an efficient entropy estimator derived from the Lempel-Ziv compression algorithm that converges to the entropy [19], [23], [24], and shows a robust performance when applied to correlated sequences [25] (see Materials and Methods).
  • (music) the electronic process by which any sound's gain is automatically controlled
  • (astronomy) the deviation of a heavenly body from a spherical form
  • Derived terms

    * compression ratio * compression wave * data compression

    Antonyms

    * decompression * rarefaction

    References

    *