Austrekken

Austrekken is not a standard Dutch verb and is not listed in major Dutch dictionaries. In standard Dutch, the closest and widely used verb is uitrekken, which means to stretch, extend, or pull something out. When austrekken appears, it is generally regarded as a nonstandard variant, a misspelling, or a regional/dialectal form rather than a separate lexical item with its own established meaning.

Possible explanations for the appearance of austrekken include typographical errors, influence from related German forms such as ausstrecken, or a local dialect spelling. Because it is not part of the formal lexicon, austrekken lacks a fully accepted or uniform definition across sources. In most contemporary texts, writers who encounter the form tend to replace it with uitrekken to convey the intended sense of stretching physically, extending a distance, or prolonging a period of time.

In usage, the standard verbs to consider are uitrekken for extending in space or duration for objects and time, rekken as a more general verb meaning to stretch or extend, and verlengen when referring specifically to prolonging time or duration in a formal sense. When discussing or documenting austrekken, it is advisable to note it as a nonstandard form and prefer uitrekken in formal writing.

See also: uitrekken, rekken, verlengen, uitstellen.