Definition of "stretcher" [stretch•er]

• A litter, usually of canvas stretched over a frame, used to transport the sick, wounded, or dead. (noun)
• One that stretches, such as the wooden framework on which canvas is stretched for an oil painting. (noun)
• A usually horizontal tie beam or brace serving to support or extend a framework. (noun)
• A brick or stone laid parallel to the face of a wall so that only its long side is showing. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Then they covered the burning, smoking gauze with absorbent cotton, then with clean, neat bandages, after which they called the stretcher bearers, and Rochard was carried from the operating table back to the ward."
• "Going to the address of the reg. owner of a car in which the young female passenger who looked like rag doll on the ambulance stretcher is almost certainly dead and the driver nearly so."
• "(The warp and weft are at forty-five degrees to the stripes, because the stretcher is rotated.)"