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
An earnest, fluent talker, who could unstring his bow and throw a charm even over ordinary topics.
From Glories of Spain by Charles W. (William) Wood
I myself often tremble for my life—art as a profession is so likely to unstring one's nerves.
From The German Classics, v. 20 Masterpieces of German Literature by Various
But the constant mental fever under which he laboured was beginning to undermine a naturally-robust constitution, and to unstring the nerves of a well-made, powerful frame.
From The Golden Dream Adventures in the Far West by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
The morning is positive; in the evening we muse and dream and take our ease, we see our friends, we unstring the bow, we indulge our social instincts.
From The Last Harvest by John Burroughs
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 Mrs. Humphry Ward
There was something horrible, unnatural in the silence, and I felt fear run down my back like ice, unstringing my muscles, sucking my heart.
From The Courtship of Morrice Buckler A Romance by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason
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 Ruel Perley Smith
"Maybe it's too early yet for the unstringing to begin!"
From The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister
Your nerves are on the rack, and will be the better for unstringing.
From Recalled to Life by Grant Allen
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
He can be seen hurling his unstrung bow into the tunnel, striking the helmet of D.C.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 27, 2022
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
But before they unstrung their bows they used to observe a ceremony.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
