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Showing results for on a string. Search instead for on+a+string.
Synonyms

on a string

Idioms  

  1. Under someone's control, as in She'll drop everything whenever Sam asks for something—he's got her on a string. This expression, alluding to pulling an animal on a leash, dates from the late 1500s, when it was put as in a string.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The display also featured Dahl's personal set of boules, along with his own invention of a magnet on a string, which Dahl used for picking up each boule.

From BBC • Nov. 24, 2025

At one point all of the magicians spontaneously do a show for one another, each of them taking part in a can-you-top-this series of illusions strung as close together as popcorn on a string.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 13, 2025

The single combat involves swinging a conker -- a hardened horse chestnut -- on a string at your opponent's nut with murderous venom, until one is smashed to pieces.

From Barron's • Oct. 17, 2025

Scott Wardlaw, 76, president of the Altadena Christmas Tree Lane Assn., pulls on a string of lights while hanging lights on the massive deodar cedars on Santa Rosa Avenue.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 5, 2024

Floating and bouncing like a balloon on a string.

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.