unstring
Americanverb
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to remove the strings of
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(of beads, pearls, etc) to remove or take from a string
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to weaken or enfeeble emotionally (a person or his nerves)
Etymology
Origin of unstring
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.
See Examples For:
That alone would’ve been enough for me to unstring my racquets and call it a career.
From Newsweek ● Jun. 21, 2011
Mrs. Bowen broke out again with a sort of violence; the years teach us something of self-control, perhaps, but they weaken and unstring the nerves.
From Indian Summer by Howells, William Dean
"You are so sympathetic that such things unstring you."
From The Desired Woman by Harben, Will N. (William Nathaniel)
That such emotion could so unstring Louis Arnold was a marvel.
From Other Things Being Equal by Wolf, Emma
As we had no hearers we used to give wonderful expression to our singing, possibly it was lucky no one could hear us, for it would certainly unstring their nerves.
From Jethou or Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles by Suffling, Ernest R. (Ernest Richard)
His liveliest sallies, his bitterest jests, were all reserved for these occasions, so that mirth or anger was forever unstringing the nerves of his competitors, and diminishing their chance of gain.
From Bred in the Bone by Payn, James
"Maybe it's too early yet for the unstringing to begin!"
From The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains by Wister, Owen
The remembered fact brought with it a degradation of mind and body—a complete unstringing of the moral fibres, which made even revenge seem an impossible output of energy.
From The History of David Grieve by Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
Your nerves are on the rack, and will be the better for unstringing.
From Recalled to Life by Allen, Grant
Tim Reardon, unstringing two of the pickerel from the rope, transferred them to a twig of alder that he cut from a near by bush, and handed them to her.
From The Rival Campers Ashore The Mystery of the Mill by Smith, Ruel Perley
By the time Gilgamesh sets out in search of immortality, he is already unstrung.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
He also wore a fur pelt around his neck and carried an unstrung wooden archery bow.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 13, 2023
That is not to say it’s historically unstrung along the lines of “The Great” or “Bridgerton” or Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette”; generally speaking, it stays put within its period.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2021
We’ll leave our gloves, with their humble histories, just as they are, somewhat unstrung by time and use, like us.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 30, 2021
A whole row of unstrung bows in varying stages of repair or build rested on a worktable, and hundreds of bushels of arrows were stacked into pyramids on the floor beside them.
From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack
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.
