Imagination I Stretch ɪˌmædʒɪˈneɪʃn Guess Leave Caught Noun

• a vivid/fertile imagination
• he's got no imagination.
• it doesn't take much imagination to guess what she meant.
• i won't tell you his reaction—i'll leave that to your imagination.

imagination

1. the ability to create pictures in your mind; the part of your mind that does this
• a vivid/fertile imagination
• He's got no imagination.
• It doesn't take much imagination to guess what she meant.
• I won't tell you his reaction—I'll leave that to your imagination.
• Don't let your imagination run away with you (= don't use too much imagination).
• The new policies appear to have caught the imagination of the public (= they find them interesting and exciting).
• Nobody hates you—it's all in your imagination.
• Use your imagination! (= used to tell somebody that they will have to guess the answer to the question they have asked you, usually because it is obvious or embarrassing)
• His stories really stretch children’s imaginations.
2. something that you have imagined rather than something that exists
• She was no longer able to distinguish between imagination and reality.
• Is it my imagination or have you lost a lot of weight?
3. the ability to have new and exciting ideas
• His writing lacks imagination.
• With a little imagination, you could turn this place into a palace.
• We are looking for someone with ingenuity and imagination.
4. something that somebody has imagined and that does not really exist
• Are you telling me that these symptoms are just a figment of my imagination?
5. to allow more of somebody’s body to be seen than usual
• Her tight-fitting dress left nothing to the imagination.
6. used to say strongly that something is not true, even if you try to imagine or believe it
• She could not, by any stretch of the imagination, be called beautiful.
• By no stretch of the imagination could the trip be described as relaxing.

Extra Examples

• As for their reaction, I’ll leave that to your imagination!
• Dinosaurs caught and have held the imagination of us all because they seem like dragons.
• He was totally without imagination.
• His imagination conjured up a vision of the normal family life he had never had.
• I don’t have a picture of this, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.
• I was no good at art—I have a very poor visual imagination.
• Is it only my imagination or have you lost weight?
• It does not take great imagination to guess what happened next.
• It requires a strong effort of historical imagination to understand the Roman attitude to death.
• It’s just a product of your fevered imagination!
• Nobody hates you—it’s all in your imagination!
• Not by any stretch of the imagination could she be called beautiful.
• The figure vanished as silently as if it had simply been a figment of her imagination.
• The film haunted the imaginations of viewers.
• The scale of the disaster defied imagination.
• Today’s music lacks imagination.
• Victorian writers fired the popular imagination with their tales of adventure.
• Was it only her imagination playing tricks on her?
• With a little imagination you can create a delicious meal from yesterday’s leftovers.
• a movie of such limited imagination
• a popular hero who inspired the collective imagination
• an education that stimulates the moral imagination
• misery that is beyond most people’s imagination
• the Pyramids retain a remarkable hold on the human imagination.
• the powers of the human imagination
• Don’t let your imagination run away with you
• He’s got no imagination.
• His stories really stretch children’s imaginations.
• I won’t tell you his reaction—I’ll leave that to your imagination
• She has a vivid imagination.
• The new policies appear to have caught the imagination of the public.

Word Origin

• Middle English: via Old French from Latin imaginatio(n-), from the verb imaginari ‘picture to oneself’, from imago, imagin- ‘image’.