Meaning
The final straight of a racecourse, running from the last bend to the finish; by extension, the last phase of any endeavour - a campaign, project, school term or journey - when the end is in sight and the final push is made. American English says home stretch or homestretch; British English usually says home straight. Homestretch as one word is standard in US editing; home straight dominates in UK usage, dated from 1880 in the OED's record. The baseball story and the weaving or sailmaking story found on listicles have no dictionary support. Regional use: American racing origin; British English prefers home straight.
Origin
The straight part of a racecourse between the final bend and the finish, called home because it is the stretch that brings the runners back toward the stands and the judge. The OED dates the earliest known use to 1841, in the New Orleans Daily Picayune, classes the word under horse racing and analyses it as a compound of home plus stretch; it separately dates the British variant home straight from 1880. Merriam-Webster likewise gives 1841 for homestretch. Etymonline dates the racing sense of stretch itself - 'straightaway of a race course, one of the two straight sides of a race track' - from 1839, built on the much older sense of a stretch as a continuous expanse of road or land, current since the late 1100s. Two popular side stories fail the record: Mental Floss notes the phrase is often but wrongly credited to baseball, and no dictionary evidence supports the internet claim that it derives from weaving or sailmaking.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- final stretch
- home straight
- homestretch
Usage Examples
- We are in the home stretch of the renovation; only the painting is left.
- With one week of term to go, the students are in the home stretch before exams.
- The campaign entered the home stretch with the two sides level in the polls.