Dictionary

unstring en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ʌnˈstɹɪŋ/

Etymology

From un- + string.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To remove the string or strings from.
   • I learned that music is expectancy and must be formed to the purpose for which it is played. People listen to it, pedagogues do not, and if they can't smile or hum or tap a foot to it, then, brother, you'd better unstring the Balalaika. 2012, Rich Jackson, Guiding Daniel, →ISBN, page 195:
   • When you unstring the bow and it snaps right back to its unstrung profile, you probably have a nice piece of wood that's properly dry. 2009, Stim Wilcox, The Art of Making Selfbows, →ISBN:
   • Unstring the bows before storing them.
   • When he looked at her neck he was reminded of how difficult it was to unstring a turkey. 2001, Graham Greene, Twenty-one Stories, →ISBN, page 30:
2. (transitive) To shake the nerves of; to cause anxiety or panic in.
   • They look at the same events that unstring those less capable ... and see something useful. 2013, Ravi Venkatesan, Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere, →ISBN, page 56:
   • A fire is the only thing that unstrings me entirely, I feel so helpless to combat it. I'm afraid of snakes, but I can kill them. 1915, Clifton Johnson, Battleground Adventures:
   • [T]he monſter, rouſed by the noiſe, ſtarted forward, preſented ſuch a viſage of horror, and raiſed ſuch a hideous roar, that the hearts of the bold were contracted, and the nerves of the valiant unſtrung. 1769, Firishta, translated by Alexander Dow, Tales translated from the Persian of Inatulla of Delhi, volume I, Dublin: P. and W. Wilson et al., page 6:
   • It took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves, so that I tremble at the least exertion, and am frightened at a shadow. 2008, Charles H. Sylvester, Journeys Through Bookland, →ISBN, page 453:
   • The sight of his scared face, his starts and pallors and sudden harkenings, unstrung me […] 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Olalla:
3. To defuse or relax.
   • Society can unstring the tension of sublimation only by lifting the barrier completely, that is, by abandoning the idea that illicit eros must not be gratified; society does not unstring the tension by silently countenancing individual gratifications. 2002, Paul W. Ludwig, Eros and Polis: Desire and Community in Greek Political Theory, →ISBN, page 254:
   • She took a deep, slow breath in an effort to settle her heart and unstring her muscles. 2010, Julia Spencer-Fleming, A Fountain Filled With Blood, →ISBN:
   • In the mean time, the same, or a similar end, may be attained, in the 2d PLACE, By splitting a duty on a commodity, so as to unstring the stimulus to smuggle, while we preserve the same, or perhaps require a greater amount, from the same subject than we had before. 1791, Andrew Hamilton, An Enquiry Into the Principles of Taxation:
4. To remove from a string; to release something that has been strung up or strung together.
   • "Poke a hole in the tops and bottoms of these eggs, blow out the yolks and whites, unstring the diamonds and stick them through the holes..." 1988, Eileen Christelow, The Robbery at the Diamond Dog Diner, →ISBN:
   • After pelting unstring the carcase. 2008, Alan Thompson, Claude Goodchild, Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps, →ISBN:
   • Look at them for 10 seconds, and then unstring them and try to put the beads back in their right order. 2004, Mandy Hager, Help, My Brain Hurts!:
   • When it came time to cook the smelly corned fish, Momma would unstring the ones she wanted and boil them several times in hot water to draw off the heavy laver of salt and tenderize the fish. 2009, Sallie Ann Robinson, Cooking the Gullah Way, Morning, Noon, and Night, →ISBN, page 137:
5. To untie.
   • He is now e'en trying to unstring the tie of virtue, in yon poor cottager's daughter! 1840, John N. Smith, Ramanzo: The Conscience Stricken Brigand.:
   • It was time to lead these horses out somewhere off the desert and unstring them. 2014, Ralph Cotton, Shadow River, →ISBN, page 280:
   • “So, James, should we unstring it first for ease of handling?” The ties were simple, as one might use without bothering about the intricacies of binding, merely to make sure that the pages stayed together and in the correct order. 2004, Elizabeth James, Across the Bridge, →ISBN, page 142:
   • Invaded thus, for want of better bands, His garland they unstring, and bind his hands 1773, John Dryden, Original poems by John Dryden, Esq - Volume 5, page 69:
6. (transitive) To split (a text string) into smaller strings by separating on a delimiter.
   • It is also possible to save the delimiters (this might prove useful if the delimiters were also some sort of text identifier) and to count the length of the data items we are unstringing. 1980, Norman R. Lyons, Structured Cobol for Data Processing:

Forms

Synonyms

explode (computing: split a text string) · explode · split