Dictionary

string bean en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Named for the tough, fibrous string running along the length of the pod (even though it is not present in some modern varieties).

Meanings

1. Any long, slender green bean.
   • Well, I rung the fallout shelter bell / And I leaned my head and I gave a yell / “Give me a string bean, I’m a hungry man” / A shotgun fired and away I ran 1963, Bob Dylan, “Talkin' World War III Blues”, in The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan:
   • Summer squashes almost in their golden blossom; cucumbers, now evincing a tendency to spread away from the main stock, and ramble far and wide; two or three rows of string-beans and as many more that were about to festoon themselves on poles; 1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
2. Any long, slender green bean. ▸ A common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)
3. Any long, slender green bean. ▸ An immature runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus)
4. Any long, slender green bean. ▸ A yardlong bean (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis)
5. Any long, slender green bean. ▸ A hyacinth bean (Lablab purpureus)
6. (figuratively) A tall and thin person.
   • My way o’ doing things suits me, and I don’t figure on changing it for you or any other half-baked young string-bean. 1925, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 15, in Arrowsmith, New York: New American Library, published 1961:
   • She was once a tall stringbean of a girl whom the boys called “Red” in high school. 1969, Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint, New York: Vintage, published 1994, page 31:

Forms

Deriveds

stringbeany

Translations (30)

pl fasola szparagowa (a long, slender variety of green bean) · mk боранија (a long, slender variety of green bean) · ro lungan (tall and thin person) · ru волокни́стая фасо́ль (a long, slender variety of green bean) · pl dryblas (tall and thin person) · pt trinca-espinhas (tall and thin person) · es habichuela (a long, slender variety of green bean) · hu zöldbab (a long, slender variety of green bean) · es larguirucho (tall and thin person) · fr haricot vert (a long, slender variety of green bean) · tl paayap (a long, slender variety of green bean) · ru стручко́вая фасо́ль (a long, slender variety of green bean) · ro fasole lunguiață (a long, slender variety of green bean) · es vainica (a long, slender variety of green bean) · ms kacang buncis (a long, slender variety of green bean) · el αμπελοφάσουλο (a long, slender variety of green bean) · it fagiolino (a long, slender variety of green bean) · ru жердь (tall and thin person) · hy թելով լոբի (a long, slender variety of green bean) · my ပဲတောင့်ရှည် (a long, slender variety of green bean) · ro fasole verde (a long, slender variety of green bean) · it spilungone (tall and thin person) · mt fażola twila (a long, slender variety of green bean) · kxd kacang buncis (a long, slender variety of green bean) · tl ayap (a long, slender variety of green bean) · ary لوبيا خضرة (a long, slender variety of green bean) · fr échalas (tall and thin person) · ro găligan (tall and thin person) · pl fasolka szparagowa (a long, slender variety of green bean) · fi kukkakeppi (tall and thin person)