What is "to be on the stretch"

Stretch \Stretch\, n.

1. Act of stretching, or state of being stretched; reach; effort; struggle; strain; as, a stretch of the limbs; a stretch of the imagination.

   By stretch of arms the distant shore to gain.
   --Dryden.

   Those put a lawful authority upon the stretch, to the abuse of yower, under the color of prerogative.
   --L'Estrange.

2. A continuous line or surface; a continuous space of time; as, grassy stretches of land.

   A great stretch of cultivated country.
   --W. Black.

   But all of them left me a week at a stretch.
   --E. Eggleston.

3. The extent to which anything may be stretched.

   Quotations, in their utmost stretch, can signify no more than that Luther lay under severe agonies of mind.
   --Atterbury.

   This is the utmost stretch that nature can.
   --Granville.

4. (Naut.) The reach or extent of a vessel's progress on one tack; a tack or board.

5. Course; direction; as, the stretch of seams of coal.

   To be on the stretch, to be obliged to use one's utmost powers.

   Home stretch. See under Home, a.