reaches

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular present of reach.

   The path reaches the river only after a long, steep climb.

   Her careful argument reaches a conclusion few could dispute.

   Note

   The ending is -es rather than a bare -s because reach ends in -ch. With a direct object, the verb means arriving or attaining: it reaches the river, it reaches a conclusion. Without an object, it describes stretching out the hand, and it is usually followed by for or out.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of reach.

   The tidal reaches of the estuary support salt-tolerant grasses and reeds.

   Boats can no longer navigate the silted lower reaches of the canal.

   Note

   The plural is most at home with the "extent, stretch, expanse" meaning of reach. A river, canal or estuary can be divided into upper, lower and tidal reaches. Senses that name an ability, such as a boxer's reach or the reach of an arm, rarely need a plural. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, as in she reaches. The "farthest limits" meaning is a plural in its own right.

3. 3
   nounplural

   The farthest or most distant limits of a place, area, or region.

   Like the outermost ring of ripples spreading from a stone dropped in a pond.

   Powerful telescopes now let astronomers study the distant reaches of the universe.

   The expedition pushed deep into the frozen reaches of the polar ice.

   Similarlimits, edges, expanses, depths

   Note

   A plural with no singular in this meaning: one speaks of the distant reaches, never a distant reach. It pairs readily with words of distance or depth, such as farthest, distant and nether. It also stretches beyond geography to anything that has an outer end. In "the nether reaches of the list," the phrase points to the bottom of the list, where the oddities sit.

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