Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a lie [it SE stretches the truth].

1674		[J. Patrick] Reflections Devotions Roman Church in Every-day Book 29 Sept. 1826 665/1: Any story of a Cock and a Bull, will serve their turns to found a Festival upon, [...] though the circumstances are never so improbable. This of removing the Rock is a pretty stretcher .
1828		W. Carr Dialect of Craven II 176: Stretcher. A notorious lie.
1847		J.M. Field Drama in Pokerville 31: Whenever Mrs. Oscar Dust told a stretcher, he was expected to swear to it.
1848		Bartlett Dict. Americanisms.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 Aug. 2/6: The latter insisted that Connor’s assertion was a stretcher.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 225: He told some stretchers, I reckon; and I said I wouldn’t swallow it all.
1889		J.K. Jerome Three Men in a Boat 248: We plied him with the customary stretchers about the wonderful things we had done.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/7: But yesterday was the stretcher.

2. a large penis.

1748–49		Cleland Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1985) 76: The young fellow had withdrawn that delicious stretcher, with which he had most plentifully drown’d all thoughts of revenge.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) VIII 1532: Some said that they loved to see and handle big ones. None said that such stretchers gave them more physical pleasure than those of moderate size.
1902		D. St John Memoirs of Madge Buford 102: ‘In it goes [...] How’s that for a stretcher?’ [...] his big prick and splendid stroking made me forget all but the pleasure of his thrusts.

3. (US Und.) a racehorse; a greyhound [SAmE stretch, the final run-in of a horserace].

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 82: Stretchers, racehorses: grey hounds.

4. (Anglo-Irish) a layer-out of the dead.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

5. (Aus.) the limit, the extreme example.

1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 18 Feb. 4/8: There’s no secrets between me an’ Jim [...] But yesterday was the stretcher.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 4 Oct. 4/8: I’ve been in many queer places [...] but this is the stretcher.

6. (UK tramp ) a boot or shoe lace.

1912

Leamington Spa Courier 20 Sept. 7/1: His real business in life is selling mohair ‘stretchers’ (laces), lead-backed ‘dumps’ (buttons) and ‘dud snails’ (common needles).

7. a long stretch of road; the journey taken upon it.

1923

J. Manchon Le Slang.

8. (US black) the neck.

1941

D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 15 Nov. 14: Joe Q. Hipp was too solid [...] to wear a tie, so he wrapped a white ringer round his stretcher and locked up the front with a bar.

9. (US black) a belt.

1944

‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

10. (US Und.) a sodomite.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

11. (S.Afr. Und.) a judge.

1963

L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 106: A ‘sinker’, a ‘sticker’ or a ‘stretcher’ is a judge.

12. see stretch n. (2b)

13. see stretch v. (1)