stretch-out

noun

A practice of industrial operation, especially in the textile industry, by which workers are required to do additional work without a proportional increase in wages.

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Meanings

nounstretch-out (plural stretch-outs)

plural stretch-outs · alternative stretchout

  1. A practice of industrial operation, especially in the textile industry, by which workers are required to do additional work without a proportional increase in wages.
    1 more example

    The strike committee's statement today […] said the “stretchout system has become a scourge and the principal weapon used by the employers to beat the workers into subjection[.]” […] Of the stretch-out, the committee declared: / “We are sick and tired of listening to people tell us that there is nothing we can do about the stretch-out. […]”

    1934 August 22, “Ways to Avert Textile Strike Come to Front”, in Chattanooga Daily Times, volume 65, number 249, Chattanooga, Tenn., page 2

    Synonyms: speedup · Antonyms: go-slow, slowdown, work-to-rule

  2. A stretch limousine.

    As time progressed, the Gray Line increased its limo fleet, converted the stretchouts into passenger vehicles (later widely emulated), and brought the first sightseeing buses to the Islands.

    2004, Robert C. Allen, Creating Hawai'i Tourism: A Memoir, page 118

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA practice of industrial operation, especially in the textile industry, by which workers are required to do additional work without a proportional increase in wages.

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Origin

Cite this entry
APA

stretch-out. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stretch-out

MLA

“stretch-out.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stretch-out. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “stretch-out,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/stretch-out.

Source: stretch-out on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.