bowstring

[boh-string]

noun

the string of an archer's bow.
a string, typically of horsehair, for the bow of an instrument of the violin and viol families.
(especially in the Ottoman Empire) a similar string for killing people by strangulation.

verb (used with object), bow·stringed or bow·strung, bow·string·ing.

to strangle with a bowstring or any string or band.

Origin of bowstring

First recorded in 1350–1400, bowstring is from the Middle English word bowe streng. See bow², string

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for bowstring

Historical Examples of bowstring

By the bowstring of my fathers, but that would be a great and worthy killing!
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 30, 1914
Various
Get ye gone, or the bastinado and the bowstring shall be your portion.
Dreamers of the Ghetto
I. Zangwill
He must not beat her or strangle her with a bowstring or drop her into the Bosporus.
In a Little Town
Rupert Hughes
He broke his bowstring, and his hand was numbed at the wrist-joint.
The Iliad of Homer (1873)
Homer
As the sound was not repeated, he strode in among the trees, setting an arrow against the bowstring.
Hawk Eye
David Cory

British Dictionary definitions for bowstring

bowstring

noun

the string of an archer's bow, usually consisting of three strands of hemp

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012