overstring

American  

[oh-ver-string] / ˌoʊ vərˈstrɪŋ /

verb (used with object)

overstrung, overstrung, overstringed, overstringing

1. Music. to arrange the strings of (a piano) so that the bass strings cross over the treble.

2. Archery. to string (a bow) too tightly.

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Etymology

Origin of overstring

First recorded in 1875–80; over- + string

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

overstringing overstrung

The Steinway's most important innovation: the combination in a grand piano of a rigid cast-iron frame with "overstringing."

From Time Magazine Archive

Messrs. Chickering assert, that the Russians were the first to employ successfully the device of "overstringing," as it is called, by which the bass strings are stretched over the others.

From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 117, July, 1867. by Various

Two distinct principles have been developed and combined—the iron framing in a single casting, and the cross or overstringing.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 by Various

The Steinway system of overstringing, however, was more extended, and solved the acoustical difficulties of cross-vibrations more successfully by spreading the long strings, and this, therefore, is the system now generally followed.

From A Popular History of the Art of Music From the Earliest Times Until the Present by Mathews, W. S. B. (William Smythe Babcock)

The iron framing in a single casting is a distinctly American invention, but proceeding, like the overstringing, from a German by birth.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 385, May 19, 1883 by Various

Yes, overstrung, gaudily painted, honky tonk joannas for passersby to hammer out jazz standards on, which – naturally – many appeared to be able to do.

From The Guardian ● Nov. 5, 2016

Both teams were overstrung, playing crazily in their eagerness to win.

From Time Magazine Archive

If our nerves are overstrung, or our tempers tried, so far from endeavouring to conceal the fact we make them feel it.

From How to be Happy Though Married Being a Handbook to Marriage by Hardy, Edward John

For no very evident reason, except that he was overstrung, he could have shouted in alarm as he lay upon the wet flooring in the dark.

From The Boy Ranchers of Puget Sound by Bindloss, Harold

I own to you, Kitty, the trial was too much for my nerves, overstrung as they have been by late events.

From The Dodd Family Abroad, Vol. I by Lever, Charles James