reach

• enPR: rēch, IPA^(key): /ɹiːt͡ʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtʃ
• Homophone: reech

From Middle English rechen, from Old English rǣċan (“to reach”), from Proto-West Germanic *raikijan, from Proto-Germanic *raikijaną, from the Proto-Indo-European *Hreyǵ- (“to bind, reach”).

reach (third-person singular simple present reaches, present participle reaching, simple past and past participle reached or (obsolete) raught)

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 someone 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. (transitive, of a missile) To strike or touch.

   His bullet reached its intended target.

6. (transitive, by extension) To extend an action, effort, or influence to; to penetrate to; to pierce, or cut.
   • 1889, The Kindergarten-Primary Magazine, volume 1, page 119:

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

   • 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:

     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.

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. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

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

   • 2019 February 3, “UN Study: China, US, Japan Lead World AI Development”, in Voice of America‎, archived from the original on 7 February 2019:

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

     Audio (US):

     (file)

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.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 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:

     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.

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

      The particulars that reach from Eastern Bengal require corroboration.

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

      I reached at the right time.

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

      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.

    • 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:

      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.

    • 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):

      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.

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

      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.

    • 2012 April 26, Rakesh Chandrasekar, “Post Trek Mail II - Freshers Trek April 22nd Nagala West”, in The Chennai Trekking Club‎ (Usenet):

      Once we reached, we parked our cars beneath the trees and started trekking up the hill after a brief round of introductions.

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.
    • 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:

      Do what, sir? I reach you not.

14. 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.

15. (intransitive) To extend in dimension, time etc.; to stretch out continuously (past, beyond, above, from etc. something).
    • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 4:

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

16. (nautical) To sail on the wind, as from one point of tacking to another, or with the wind nearly abeam.
17. (slang, MTE, MLE) To arrive at a particular destination, especially to join someone; to meet up.

    Synonym: link up

    What time you reaching tomorrow?

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

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

• In the past, raught, rought and retcht could be found as past tense forms; these are now obsolete, except perhaps in some dialects.

reach (plural reaches)

1. The act of stretching or extending; extension.^[1]
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 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:

     […] 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.

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

     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.

3. The power of stretching out or extending action, influence, or the like; power of attainment or management; extent of force or capacity.
   • a. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: for Iohn Partridge, , published 1630, →OCLC:

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

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

     Be sure yourself and your own reach to know.

4. Extent; stretch; expanse; hence, application; influence; result; scope.
   • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC:

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

   • 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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

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

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

     The river's wooded reach.

   • 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:

     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.

   • 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 , Fiddler’s or the evocative Lower Hope .

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

      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.

    • 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

12. (obsolete) An article to obtain an advantage.
    • a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine. ”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. , London: I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, , published 1629, →OCLC:

      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.^[1]
    • 1913, Alice B. Emerson, Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp, Chapter 7:

      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.

reach (third-person singular simple present reaches, present participle reaching, simple past and past participle reached)

1. (obsolete or dialect) Alternative form of retch.

reach (plural reaches)

1. (obsolete or dialect) Alternative form of retch.

• Arche, acher, arche, chare, chear, rache

From Middle High German rēch, from Old High German rēh, from Proto-West Germanic *raihō, from Proto-Germanic *raihô, *raihą (“deer”). Cognate with German Reh, English roe.

reach n

1. roe deer

• “reach” in Cimbrian, Ladin, Mòcheno: Getting to know 3 peoples. 2015. Servizio minoranze linguistiche locali della Provincia autonoma di Trento, Trento, Italy.

If related to Old English ragu (“moss”), compare Russian ракита (rakita, “broom, willow tree”), which could be from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷ- (“bend”).^[1][2]

reach n (plural reagen, diminutive reachje)

1. spiderweb

• “reach”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011