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 Sprawl - What's the difference?

stretch | sprawl |

As verbs the difference between stretch and sprawl

is that stretch is to lengthen by pulling while sprawl is to sit with the limbs spread out.

As nouns the difference between stretch and sprawl

is that stretch is an act of stretching while sprawl is an ungainly sprawling posture.

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}}

    Anagrams

    * English ergative verbs

    sprawl

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To sit with the limbs spread out.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1888 , year_published=1994 , publisher=Wordsworth Editions , author= , title=The Man Who Would Be King, and Other Stories , chapter=Baa Baa, Black Sheep citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=4cHkHAU7r9kC&pg=PA159&dq=sprawled, sprawls, sprawling, %22to+sprawl%22+-urban&hl=en&ei=OhVOTMSHDciWOPGJgZYD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CEkQ6AEwBzhQ
  • v=onepage&q=sprawled, sprawls, sprawling, %22to%20sprawl%22%20-urban&f=false
    • , isbn=9781853262098 , page=159 , passage=There was no special place for him or his little affairs, and he was forbidden to sprawl' on sofas and explain his ideas about the manufacture of this world and his hopes for the future. ' Sprawling was lazy and wore out sofas, and little boys were not expected to talk.}}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1942 , year_published=2007 , publisher=Down East Enterprises , author=Louise Dickinson Rich , title=We Took to the Woods , chapter=“Do You Get Out Very Often?” citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=LsDXYtxwxygC&pg=PA314&dq=sprawled, sprawls, sprawling, %22to+sprawl%22+-urban&hl=en&ei=OhVOTMSHDciWOPGJgZYD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCThQ
  • v=onepage&q=sprawled, sprawls, sprawling, %22to%20sprawl%22%20-urban&f=false
    • , isbn=9780892727360 , page=314 , passage=But most of all I like to sit in the dark with all these hearty souls sprawled' around me on the floor and hear them talk. I am sorry to say that I can never believe that floor-'''sprawling is anything but a pose; I have tried it and it is ''not comfortable but it looks well in the flickering fire-light, and is in good magazine-story tradition.}}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1979 , year_published=1985 , publisher=Gallaudet University Press , author=Thomas S. Spradley, James P. Spradley , title=Deaf Like Me , section=Chapter Six citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=Jhq_4oEbcKcC&pg=PA64&dq=sprawled, sprawls, sprawling, %22to+sprawl%22+-urban&hl=en&ei=SBlOTJbXEqSTOJzI_ZUD&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCsQ6AEwATha
  • v=onepage&q=sprawled, sprawls, sprawling, %22to%20sprawl%22%20-urban&f=false
    • , isbn=9780930323110 , page=64 , passage=There were pillows on the floor, a few chairs, and four or five students sprawled here and there watching a football game.}}
  • To spread out in a disorderly fashion; to straggle.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1771 , publisher=B. White , editor= , by=Carl Gustav Ekeberg , author=Johann Reinhold Foster , title=A Voyage to China and the East Indies, volume 2 , chapter=Birds and Beasts , volume_plain=A Short Account of the Chinese Husbandry citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=zUkQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA312&dq=sprawl&hl=en&ei=Mh5LTOatOtfcsAavq-RF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAzge
  • v=onepage&q=sprawl&f=false
    • , page=321 , passage=The hatched young ones are ?odl to tho?e who breed them up, and the?e try in the following manner whether they are hatched too ?oon or not: they take hold the little ducks by the bill, and their bodies hang down ; if they ?prawl and extend their feet and wings, they are hatched in due time ; but if they have had too much heat, they hang without any ?truggling.}}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1914 , year_published=2009 , publisher=BiblioBazaar , author= , title=Cross Trails: The Story of One Woman in the North Woods citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=Ew0CQkAYQkUC&pg=PA116&dq=sprawled, sprawls, sprawling, %22to+sprawl%22+-urban&hl=en&ei=vSdLTN7rJYuqsAbU7MhG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQ6AEwADgK
  • v=onepage&q=sprawled, sprawls, sprawling, %22to%20sprawl%22%20-urban&f=false
    • , isbn=9781103051649 , page=116 , passage=A shrewd blow, it caught him off balance, and after one ineffectual stagger he sprawled backward and lay for a moment staring up in blank surprise}}
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1995 , publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group , author=James H. Hallas , title=Squandered Victory: the American First Army at St. Mihiel , chapter=Eyes on Metz citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=v8CgZ6eJFa8C&pg=PA187&dq=sprawled, sprawls, sprawling, %22to+sprawl%22+-urban&hl=en&ei=-xFOTJiDFY6lsQao_fxO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDoQ6AEwBDgo
  • v=onepage&q=sprawled, sprawls, sprawling, %22to%20sprawl%22%20-urban&f=false
    • , isbn=9780275950224 , page=187 , passage=German trucks stood along the road, the drivers dead in the seats or sprawled' on the ground nearby.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Clive Lindsay , title=Kilmarnock 1 - 2 St Johnstone , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Bell sprawled full length to turn a Sandaza drive wide of the far post, but Saints had done enough to inflict Killie's first home defeat of the season.}}

    Noun

    (-)
  • An ungainly sprawling posture.
  • A straggling, haphazard growth, especially of housing on the edge of a city.
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=2006 , publisher=JHU Press , author=Anthony Flint , title=The Land: The Battle Over Sprawl and the Future of America , section=Introduction: Developing America citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=SmVKMXG28Q0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=sprawl&ei=qhxLTISWK4aWzASZmMG-CQ&cd=10
  • v=onepage&q=sprawl&f=false
    • , isbn=9780801884191 , page=17 , passage=Getting people to think about the future is difficult. Just ask some of the people who end up being most concerned about sprawl —the millions who move into suburban subdivisions, only to have their dreams of the good life spoiled by maddening traffic and water bans, because millions more moved into the next subdivision over.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year=1959 , author=William H. Whye Jr. , title=A Plan to Save Vanishing U.S. Countryside , date=August 17, 1959 , volume=47 , issue=7 , page=92 , magazine=Life , publisher=Time, Inc , issn=0024-3019 citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=R0gEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA92&dq=sprawl&hl=en&ei=fB1LTJPFHM_gsAbDzMRG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CFkQ6AEwBw
  • v=onepage&q=sprawl&f=false
    • , passage=Many of our past difficulties in dealing with sprawl' come from some very mistaken if widely held assumptions. One is that ' sprawl is due to too many people and not enough land. }}
  • * {{quote-magazine
    • , year=1948 , author=Terry B. Augur , title=The Dispersal of Cities—A Feasible Program , date=October 1948 , volume=4 , issue=10 , page=314 , magazine=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists , publisher=Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science , issn=0096-3402 citation , pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=0QsAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA314&dq=sprawl&hl=en&ei=Mh5LTOatOtfcsAavq-RF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6AEwADge
  • v=onepage&q=sprawl&f=false
    • , passage=He briefly compares the relative merits of providing for that growth by the usual method of urban sprawl and by directing it into suburban satellite communities with the integrity preserved and comes out strongly for the latter method. }}

    Derived terms

    * urban sprawl

    See also

    * Los Angelization