reach

present singular third person reaches · participle present reaching · participle past reached · past reached · obsolete participle past raught · obsolete past raught · first person past singular reached · archaic first person past singular raught · archaic first person past singular rought · archaic first person past singular retcht · archaic present second person singular reachest · past second person singular reached · archaic past second person singular reachedst · archaic past second person singular raught · archaic past second person singular raughtest · archaic past second person singular retcht

1. intransitiveTo extend, stretch, or thrust out (for example a limb or object held in the hand).

   He reached for his shoe with his legs.

   1 more example

   He reached for a weapon that was on the table.

2. transitiveTo give to someone by stretching out a limb, especially the hand; to give with the hand; to pass to another person; to hand over.

   to reach someone a book

   1 more example

   When Svend Fælling had promised to do so, saying that he thought himself strong and active enough for the encounter, the Troll reached him a heavy iron bar, and bade him show his strength on that.

   1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 204

3. intransitiveTo stretch out the hand.
4. transitiveTo attain or obtain by stretching forth the hand; to extend some part of the body, or something held, so as to touch, strike, grasp, etc.

   to reach an object with the hand, or with a spear

   2 more examples

   “I can't quite reach the pepper. Could you pass it to me?”

   The gun was stored in a small box on a high closet shelf, but the boy managed to reach it by climbing on other boxes.

5. transitiveTo strike or touch.

   His bullet reached its intended target.

6. broadlytransitiveTo extend an action, effort, or influence to; to penetrate to; to pierce, or cut.

   A few words, lovingly, encouragingly spoken failed to reach her heart.

   1889, The Kindergarten-Primary Magazine, volume 1, page 119

   1 more example

   Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

7. transitiveTo extend to; to stretch out as far as; to touch by virtue of extent.

   his hand reaches the river

   3 more examples

   When the forest reaches the river, you will be able to rest.

   Thy desire […] leads to no excess / That reaches blame.

   1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   Patent filings for neural networks grew at a rate of 46 percent from 2013 to 2016, reaching 6,506, the study found.

   2019 February 3, “UN Study: China, US, Japan Lead World AI Development”, in Voice of America, archived from the original on 07 Feb 2019

8. transitiveTo arrive at (a place) by effort of any kind.

   After three years, he reached the position of manager.

   4 more examples

   The climbers reached the top of the mountain after a gruelling ten-day hike.

   I am very Senſible, the beſt accounts of the Appearances of Nature (in any ſingle Inſtance hovv minute or ſimple ſoever) Humane Penetration can reach, comes infinitely ſhort of its reality, and internal Conſtitution; for vvho can ſearch out the Almighty, or his vvorks to Perfection.

   1715, George Cheyne, “The Preface”, in Philosophical Principles of Religion: Natural and Revealed: […] Philosophical Principles of Natural Religion. Part I. […], 2nd edition, London: […] George Strahan […], →OCLC

   But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,[…]. By the time we reached the house we were thanking our stars she had come. Mrs. Cooke came out from under the port-cochere to welcome her.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   On the trip out our car was full of railway workers, going out to work on the Lanchow-Sinkiang Railway which had already reached Yumen, China’s biggest oil field, and in 1960 will connect with the Soviet Union’s Turkestan-Siberia Railway; or to the Lanchow-Yinchuan section, which cuts through the Great Wall to reach Yinchuan, a major wool, hide and skin trading center in the Northwest.

   1956 October, Grace Liu, “A Train Trip in China”, in New World Review, volume 24, number 10, New York: S.R.T. Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 20, column 1

9. figurativelytransitiveTo make contact with.

   I tried to reach you all day.

   Synonyms: contact, get hold of, get in touch

10. figurativelytransitiveTo connect with (someone) on an emotional level, making them receptive of (one); to get through to (someone).

    What will it take for me to reach him?

    1 more example

    Whether by design or driven by the force of circumstances, they have always directed their main effort toward gaining the support of this "elite," while the more conservative groups have acted, as regularly but unsuccessfully, on a more naive view of mass democracy and have usually vainly tried directly to reach and to persuade the individual voter.

    1949, F. A. Hayek, “The Intellectuals and Socialism”, in University of Chicago Law Review, volume 16, number 3, Chicago: University of Chicago, →DOI, page 418

11. IndiaSingaporeintransitiveTo arrive at a particular destination.

    I reached at the right time.

    1958, India. Ministry of Education, A Basic Grammar of Modern Hindi: English Version, page 33

    5 more examples

    The particulars that reach from Eastern Bengal require corroboration.

    1907, George Clifford Whitworth, Indian English: An Examination of the Errors of Idiom made by Indians in Writing English, page 122

    It should be noted that Hare Krishna Konar, an arch leftist, could not vote on the Bhupesh Gupta—S.K. Achaiya issue as he reached late.

    1960, Gene Donald Overstreet, Marshall Windmiller, Communism in India, page 144

    In the event of your statement reaching later than 6th March, there will be chances of your requirement left and leading to difficulty of having to explain your excess or saving being as the case may be.

    1975, India. Parliament. Public Accounts Committee, Epitome of the Reports of the Central Committee of Public Accounts from 1967-68 to 1970-71 (Fourth Lok Sabha) and of the Government Orders Thereon, page 144

    I suggest taking an earlier bus (say 6:00 p.m.), reaching at around midnight, then taking a taxi (might even be able to catch the last MRT) to Changi.

    2004 February 18, Mr. Free Notes, “Getting bus from KL to Singapore leaving night, likely to be any delays in arrival?”, in soc.culture.singapore (Usenet)

    When we reached at 7.30 a.m., we saw groups of men and women bracing themselves for the day's events by writing out posters or painting placards.

    2009, Boria Majumdar, Nalin Mehta, India and the Olympics, page 218

12. transitiveTo continue living until or up to (a certain age).

    You can only access the inheritance money when you reach the age of 25.

13. obsoleteTo understand; to comprehend.

    Do what, sir? I reach you not.

    1612 January 5 (first performance, Gregorian calendar; published 1619), Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “A King, and No King”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii

14. To strain after something; to make (sometimes futile or pretentious) efforts.

    Reach for the stars!

    2 more examples

    Reach for your dreams.

    Repetitious comments are other examples of introjects that we take on as if they were truths. These include: You're lazy; you're selfish; you'll never amount to anything; you have big dreams; don't you think you're reaching a bit; try something more attainable; you were never good in math; you're not quick on your feet; you're oblivious to the world around you.

    2015, Janet S. Steinwedel, The Golden Key to Executive Coaching

15. intransitiveTo extend in dimension, time etc.; to stretch out continuously (past, beyond, above, from etc. something).

    The Thembu tribe reaches back for twenty generations to King Zwide.

    1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 4

16. nauticalTo sail on the wind, as from one point of tacking to another, or with the wind nearly abeam.
17. Multicultural London EnglishslangTo arrive at a particular destination, especially to join someone; to meet up.

    What time you reaching tomorrow?

    1 more example

    If you're calling out at your homies to come over and hang out, you just simply say "reach."

    2017 September 21, Kristina Ramcharran, “25 Toronto Slang Words You've Definitely Heard At Least Once”, in Narcity

    Synonyms: link up

plural reaches

1. countableuncountableThe act of stretching or extending; extension.
2. countableuncountableThe ability to reach or touch with the person, a limb, or something held or thrown.

   The fruit is beyond my reach.

   3 more examples

   to be within reach of cannon shot

   […] and we have learned not to fire at any of the dinosaurs unless we can keep out of their reach for at least two minutes after hitting them in the brain or spine, or five minutes after puncturing their hearts—it takes them so long to die.

   1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VI, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC

   You like to hear about gold. A king filled his prison room As full as the room could hold To the top of his reach on the wall With every known shape of the stuff.

   1936, Robert Frost, “The Vindictives”, in A Further Range

3. countableuncountableThe power of stretching out or extending action, influence, or the like; power of attainment or management; extent of force or capacity.

   Be sure yourself and your own reach to know.

   1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   Drawn by others who had deeper reaches than themselves to matters which they least intended.

   a. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge, […], published 1630, →OCLC

4. countableuncountableExtent; stretch; expanse; hence, application; influence; result; scope.

   And on the left hand, hell, / With long reach, interposed.

   1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   I am to pray you not to strain my speech / To grosser issues, nor to larger reach / Than to suspicion.

   c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]

   While points measure the number of times the average person in a group sees an ad, reach measures the percentage of people in a group that see an ad at least once. Increasing the reach of an ad becomes increasingly expensive as you go along (for the mathematically inclined, it is an exponential function).

   1999, Evan J. Mandery, The Campaign: Rudy Giuliani, Ruth Messenger, Al Sharpton, and the Race to be Mayor of New York City

5. countableinformaluncountableAn exaggeration; an extension beyond evidence or normal; a stretch.

   To call George eloquent is certainly a reach.

6. countableuncountableboxingThe distance a boxer's arm can extend to land a blow.
7. countableuncountablenauticalAny point of sail in which the wind comes from the side of a vessel, excluding close-hauled.
8. countableuncountablenauticalThe distance traversed between tacks.
9. countableuncountablenauticalA stretch of a watercourse which can be sailed in one reach (in the previous sense). An extended portion of water; a stretch; a straightish portion of a stream, river, or arm of the sea extending up into the land, as from one turn to another. By extension, the adjacent land.

   The river's wooded reach.

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “(please specify |part=Prologue or Epilogue, or |canto=I to CXXIX)”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC

   4 more examples

   the gulfe Iasius, and all the coast thereof is very full of creekes and reaches.

   1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC

   The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return.

   1899 March, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MI, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part II, page 483

   All three parallel valleys of the Llynvi, Garw and Ogmore are much the same in physical character: the lower reaches are wooded and not unattractive, but as the railway climbs on ever-steepening grades, the hills on either hand grow barer and closer together, while in all respects the scene becomes more sombre, with the terraced, slate-roofed colliery towns and the road, railway and river all struggling for space in the narrowing defiles.

   1955 July, D. S. Barrie, “Railways of the Bridgend District”, in Railway Magazine, page 449

   December 2011, Dan Houston, Sailing a classic yacht on the Thames, Classic Boat Magazine Close-hauled past flats at Island Gardens opposite the old Royal Naval College at Greenwich we’d been making more than seven knots over the ground and we came close enough to touch the wall. It had felt like roller-blading – long lee-bowed boards down the reaches of this historic river. They have such great names: Bugsby’s Reach, Gallions [Reach], Fiddler’s [Reach] or the evocative Lower Hope [Reach].

10. countableuncountableA level stretch of a watercourse, as between rapids in a river or locks in a canal. (examples?)
11. countableuncountableAn extended portion or area of land or water.

    2002, Russell Allen, "Incantations of the Apprentice", on Symphony X, The Odyssey. Through eerie reach of ancient woods / Where lumbering mists arise / I journey for nines moons of the year / To where a land of legend lies

    1 more example

    Lower down, in a little reach of the lagoon there grew a clump of casuarinas, those timid isolates that withdraw from other trees, selecting their own privacy, which is for ever whispering secrets up in their feathery fronds, set in motion by the slightest breeze.

    1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 134

12. countableobsoleteuncountableAn article to obtain an advantage.

    The Duke of Parma had particular reaches and ends of his own, under hand, to cross the design.

    a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a Warre with Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC

13. countableuncountableThe pole or rod connecting the rear axle with the forward bolster of a wagon.

    They leaped ahead just as Ruth came to the side of the long reach that connected the small pair of front wheels with the huge wheels in the rear.

    1913, Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp, Chapter 7

present singular third person reaches · participle present reaching · participle past reached · past reached

1. alternativedialectalobsoleteAlternative form of retch.

plural reaches

1. alternativedialectalobsoleteAlternative form of retch.

plural reaches

1. Japanesealternativepachinkoboard gamesAlternative form of riichi.

alternative Reach

1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals.

   1 more example

   A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which is responsible for the UK’s registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals (UK Reach), said: “UK Reach allows the UK to make its own decisions on the regulation of chemicals that are based on the best available scientific evidence, ensuring that chemicals remain safely used and managed. «UK to investigate tattoo ink health risks after EU ban » The Guardian, 2021

1. A village and civil parish in East Cambridgeshire district, Cambridgeshire, England (OS grid ref TL5666).
2. A former township in the Regional Municipality of Durham, Ontario, Canada, now part of the township of Scugog.