second string
Americannoun
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Sports. the squad of players available either individually or as a team to replace or relieve those who start a game.
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a secondary position, status, or group, as in a level of corporate management.
noun
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an alternative course of action, etc, intended to come into use should the first fail (esp in the phrase a second string to one's bow )
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a substitute or reserve player or team
adjective
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sport
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being a substitute player
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being the second-ranked player of a team in an individual sport
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second-rate or inferior
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of second string
1635–45 in sense “backup, resort,” alluding to a second bowstring; 1860–65, applied to racehorses; 1950–55, to sports teams
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.
Turkey come out on top in the last minute of an end-to-end 3-2 win over a second string USA side, in their final Group D match at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
Uncapped wicketkeeper-batsman Khawaja Nafay is also included in the squad after his impressive show with Pakistan's second string team in the last two years.
From Barron's ● Dec. 28, 2025
“I basically played second string at ‘SC,” Ardell said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2025
But scientists found niobium difficult to engineer as a core qubit component, and so it was relegated to the second string on Team Superconducting Qubit.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 26, 2024
Three span later I was trying to play Waiting While it Rains when a second string broke.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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.
