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.

---

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

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

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 W. S. B. (William Smythe Babcock) Mathews

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

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

Then, quite suddenly, some panic impulse seized Jessie, the result perhaps of her overstrung nerves and the overcharged atmosphere, and she sprang up, not knowing why.

From Across the Stream by Edward Frederic Benson

Here, at all events, was an explanation to the mystery; but in my case the sudden relaxing of overstrung nerves made me little inclined to join in my companion's laugh.

From Highway Pirates or, The Secret Place at Coverthorne by Harold Avery

And yet his nerves were so overstrung that he was acutely conscious of the slightest sound in the court, as he rose now, the observed of all present.

From Eli's Children The Chronicles of an Unhappy Family by George Manville Fenn