reach
see also: REACH
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ɹiːt͡ʃ/
Verb

reach (reaches, present participle reaching; past and past participle reached)

  1. (intransitive) To extend, stretch, or thrust out (for example a limb or object held in the hand).
    He reached for a weapon that was on the table.
    He reached for his shoe with his legs.
  2. (transitive) To 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 one a book
  3. (intransitive) To stretch out the hand.
  4. (transitive) To 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
    “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. (intransitive) To strike or touch with a missile.
    His bullet reached its intended target.
  6. (transitive) Hence, to extend an action, effort, or influence to; to penetrate to; to pierce, or cut.
  7. (transitive) To extend to; to stretch out as far as; to touch by virtue of extent.
    his hand reaches the river
    When the forest reaches the river, you will be able to rest.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
      Thy desire […] leads to no excess / That reaches blame.
  8. (transitive) To arrive at (a place) by effort of any kind.
    After three years, he reached the position of manager.
    The climbers reached the top of the mountain after a gruelling ten-day hike.
    • The best account of the appearances of nature which human penetration can reach, comes short of its reality.
  9. (transitive, figurative) To make contact with.
    Synonyms: contact, get hold of, get in touch
    I tried to reach you all day.
  10. (transitive, figurative) To 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?
  11. (intransitive, India, Singapore) To arrive at a particular destination.
  12. (transitive) To continue living until, or up to, a certain age.
    You can only access the inheritance money when you reach the age of 25.
  13. (obsolete) To understand; to comprehend.
    • 1611, Francis Beaumont; John Fletcher, “A King, and No King”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: Printed for Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, OCLC 3083972 ↗, Act 4, scene 2:
      Do what, sir? I reach you not.
  14. (obsolete) To overreach; to deceive.
  15. To strain after something; to make (sometimes futile or pretentious) efforts.
    Reach for your dreams.
    Reach for the stars!
    • 2015, Janet S. Steinwedel, The Golden Key to Executive Coaching
      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.
  16. (intransitive) To extend in dimension, time etc.; to stretch out continuously (past, beyond, above, from etc. something).
    • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, page 4:
      The Thembu tribe reaches back for twenty generations to King Zwide.
  17. (nautical) To sail on the wind, as from one point of tacking to another, or with the wind nearly abeam.
  18. To experience a vomiting reflex; to gag; to retch.
Translations
  • German: greifen nach, langen nach
  • Italian: allungare, stendere
  • Russian: тяну́ться
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

reach (plural reaches)

  1. The act of stretching or extending; extension.
  2. The ability to reach or touch with the person, a limb, or something held or thrown.
    The fruit is beyond my reach.
    to be within reach of cannon shot
    • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter VI
      […] 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.
  3. The power of stretching out or extending action, influence, or the like; power of attainment or management; extent of force or capacity.
    • Drawn by others who had deeper reaches than themselves to matters which they least intended.
    • 1709, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: Printed for W. Lewis […], published 1711, OCLC 15810849 ↗:
      Be sure yourself and your own reach to know.
  4. Extent; stretch; expanse; hence, application; influence; result; scope.
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost
      And on the left hand, hell, / With long reach, interposed.
    • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene iii]:
      I am to pray you not to strain my speech / To grosser issues, nor to larger reach / Than to suspicion.
    • 1999, Evan J. Mandery, The Campaign: Rudy Giuliani, Ruth Messenger, Al Sharpton, and the Race to be Mayor of New York City
      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).
  5. (informal) An exaggeration; an extension beyond evidence or normal; a stretch.
    To call George eloquent is certainly a reach.
  6. (boxing) The distance a boxer's arm can extend to land a blow.
  7. (nautical) Any point of sail in which the wind comes from the side of a vessel, excluding close-hauled.
  8. (nautical) The distance traversed between tacks.
  9. (nautical) A 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.
    • 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].
    • 1849, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1850, OCLC 3968433 ↗, (please specify ):
      |||tr=|brackets=|subst=|lit=|nocat=1|footer=}}|}}
      The river's wooded reach.
    • The coast […] is very full of creeks and reaches.
  10. A level stretch of a watercourse, as between rapids in a river or locks in a canal. (examples?)
  11. An extended portion or area of land or water.
    • 2002, Russell Allen, "Incantations of the Apprentice", on Symphony X, The Odyssey.
      quote en
  12. (obsolete) An article to obtain an advantage.
    • 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain
      The Duke of Parma had particular reaches and ends of his own, under hand, to cross the design.
  13. The pole or rod connecting the rear axle with the forward bolster of a wagon.
  14. An effort to vomit; a retching.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • German: Kanalhaltung (section between locks), Strecke (section between falls)
  • French: bief
Translations
  • Italian: tratto (of a river or road)
  • Spanish: tramo (section of a journey)

REACH
Proper noun
  1. Acronym of Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals



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