Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) a twelve-month sentence; thus two stretch, two years; three stretch, three years etc; cit. 1869 defining it as ‘a three year sentence’ is presumably a misinterpretation.

1821		D. Haggart Autobiog. 80: Poor Barney got a free passage to Botany Bay for fourteen stretch.
1859		‘Hundred Stretches Hence’ in Matsell Vocabulum 124: Played out their lay, it will be said / A hundred stretches hence.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 107/1: We ‘dun’ a ‘bit’ in wun ov theeir blarsted ’oyle’s, an’ I’ll goa tu ’ell iv I wudn’t du a ‘stretch’ in wun ov our English ‘sturs’ sooner thaus dur a ‘drag’ in a starvin’, louzy, an’ itchy Scotch prison! [Ibid.] 148/2: Poor fool, ’e’s gotten fifteen ‘stretch’.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 88: Three years’ imprisonment – a stretch.
1869		Australasian (Melbourne) 17 July 8/5: To be sentenced .to seven years is to do seven stretch .
1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 503: About two moon after this the same fence fell for buying two finns (£5 notes), for which he got a stretch and a half.
1885		M. Davitt Leaves from a Prison Diary I 24: He had announced himself as having got seven ‘stretch’ (years) for clearing out a jeweller’s shop in Manchester.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 16 Nov. 4/3: I’ve done a few stretch for things I bin accused of innercent.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 24 Feb. 3/4: And you shall have weight in your sentences of ‘drags’, / Of ‘drags’ and of ‘stretches’.
1895		Truth (Sydney) 12 May 5/4: I did four stretch in Pentridge for robbery at Melbourne.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 235: He was ‘doin’ three stretch for stoppin’ a kid in the street an’ takin’ its school money away’.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 28 Sept. 3/6: ‘Lucky I didn’t strike seven stretch’.
1906		O.C. Malvery Soul Market 141: ‘I thought he got a two stretch.’ ‘So he did,’ said Mrs. Rummings; ‘but they knocked six months orf ’cos of ’is good behaviour.’.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Sept. 4/7: They gimme a stretch at Pentridge.
1907		Proc. Old Bailey 8 Jan. 327: I arrested prisoner at a lodging-house in Tooley Street. He said, ‘Who the b——h—has put me away; I suppose that old cow who lives with my father; I suppose I shall get three stretch for this; I don't care’.
1909		‘The Lang. of Crooks’ in Wash. Post 20 June 4/1: [paraphrasing J. Sullivan] A stretch [is] a term of one year.
1915		C.J. Dennis ‘A Spring Song’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 15: Me, that ’as done me stretch fer stoushin’ Johns, / An’ spen’s me leisure gittin’ on the shick.
1926		N. Lucas London and its Criminals 22: ‘Izzy’ had ‘gone down’ for a ‘stretch’ (twelve months).
1939		V. Davis Gentlemen of the Broad Arrows 164: Mosher is doing seven stretch and I’m doing five.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 19: I done a two-stretch. ’Tworn’t so dusty. Considerin’...
1950		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 11 Jan. [synd. cartoon] I’ve just done a six months stretch for lifting a few towels.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 67: They sent me to Chelmsford pdorison [...] I had a four stretch ahead of me.
1956		‘Charles Raven’ Und. Nights 170: Bob Day, who had bought one groin too many and was doing a two stretch.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 65: The server is doing a five stretch for rape.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 24: We’d never grass on each other [...] not for a ten-stretch.
1970		T. Parker Frying-Pan 45: I’d go on a job knowing it’d be a ten-stretch if we were caught.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 198: stretch: a prison sentence.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 197: stretch 12 months’ imprisonment.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] Sure, he’s only after starting a seven-stretch for half-killing some bus driver.
1999		Indep. Information 28 Aug.–3 Sept. 39: Having been stitched-up for a three-year stretch.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 57: Hennessy is looking down the barrel of a ten-stretch.
2012		D. Whish-Wilson ‘In Savage Freedom’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] He made sure I went inside, for the five stretch.

(b) (also stretcher) a sentence of undetermined length.

1857		‘Ducange Anglicus’ Vulgar Tongue 21: Stretch, hard labour, in prison.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 10 Jan. 3/3: He was sent up for several years [...] During Webster’s absence from Chicago on the ‘stretch’ [etc].
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Feb. 7/3: Lady Westbury […] was lately robbed of the ‘knee-apron’ of her carriage. She treated the perpetrators of this outrage to a ‘stretch’ in Millbank.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 27: I should stand a good chance of being buckled and getting a stretch.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 29 July 4/5: I’ll do this stretch upon my head.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 190: Some of them were culprits of long standing, men who had taken their ‘stretchers,’ as they called their terms in prison, regularly and without flinching.
1901		(ref. to 1867) ‘Rolf Boldrewood’ In Bad Company 489: You’ll get a term of imprisonment of course. ‘A long ‘stretch,’ I expect,’ he said.
1904		Marvel 12 Nov. 1: Some accomplice who had been tripped up and sent for a stretch to Portland.
1910		Wash. Post 3 July 3/1: Yer right, red [...] A little stretch up at Copper John’s is the only thing fer Hoppy’s habit.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 21 Feb. 12/6: When him and his frowsy mother / Got a stretch apiece dear Sir.
1920		C.S. Montanye ‘Perfect Crime’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2007) 351: He was doing a stretch in a band-house in Joplin for a job in Chi.
1932		J. Dixon Free To Love 179: He’s done two stretches up the river. He’s jail-shy.
1932		New Call (Perth, WA) 7 Apr. 3/4: A bird that has only Just escaped from his ‘cage’ after doing a ‘stretch’.
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 8: I couldn’t stand another stretch.
1944		Sun (Sydney) 10 Nov. 2/1: The old lag smiled. ‘Oh, if they’ve got more’n two on you it don’t matter how many. You can only get two stretches cumulative’.
1952		Aberdeen Eve. Express 20 Dec. 5/6: Their heroes are the older boys who have ‘done a stretch’, maybe for a ‘lorry job’ or for ‘blagging’ which is robbery with violence.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 213: He’ll get a real stretch for that.
1965		F.J. Hardy Yarns of Billy Borker 61: They’d get a long stretch for a charge like that.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 68: It don’t make sense to get the sort of stretch they gave Jack.
1981		T. Wilkinson Down and Out 132: Oh, I’ve been doing a fair old stretch [...] I’ve been away for quite a time.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 99: Dot Rothstein knew a colored girl doing a stretch at Juvenile Hall.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 180/1: stretch n. a prison sentence (usually a long one).
2005		L. Theroux Call of the Weird (2006) 55: ‘How long a stretch are you facing?’ I asked. ‘Fifty years.’.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] He was at the end of a six-year stretch.
2014		M. McBride Swollen Red Sun 105: She hadn’t left the hill in twenty years, not even when Butch did his stretch.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] ‘Took a chiv in the back in Peterhead, I see . . .’ ‘Yeah [...] He did the rest of his stretch in isolation’.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] [A] facsimile mugshot of himself, taken from his last stretch in Pentridge.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 164: Chopper knew how violent ex-cons thought. You did not get between them and a stretch without your weapon drawn.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 619: ‘[B]enefittin’ your stretch... benefitt... befittin’ a Captain Baron... extendin’ your ‘ealth prospects’.

(c) a year.

1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ Macmillan’s Mag. XL (London) 502: I went on like this for very nearly a stretch (year) without being smugged (apprehended).
1881		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 12 Apr. 7/3: I’ve been out of London more’n a stretch.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 6/6: Strike me fat, if I ever go back to the old life if they let this joint alone for another stretch (i.e. a year).
1904		Sun (NY) 10 July 29/4: Here is a genuine letter written in thieves’ slang, recently found by the English police [...] I met an old flame [...] that I thought was put to bed with a spade and shovel stretches ago.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 40: I stars seeing this bird cvalled Eve, about three stretch ago.

(d) (N.Z. prison) a period of solitary confinement.

1953

I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 63: If you’re doing a longer stretch than three days, you’re supposed to have a break [...] on No. 2 ration.