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
Peggy was not, as we know, a nervous girl, but the situation was enough to unstring the nerves of the most stolid of beings.
From The Girl Aviators on Golden Wings by Burnham, Margaret
Away then to loosen, to unstring the divine bow, so tense, so long.
From Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Whitman, Walt
Meantime, as if fearful that the continuance of the scene might too much unstring his master, the servant seemed anxious to terminate it.
From The Piazza Tales by Melville, Herman
And this wave of passion that ran through his veins seemed to unstring his nerves, weaken his purpose, and cast a mist of love over his courage.
From The Strand Magazine, Vol. 27, No. 161, May 1904 by Various
Uncle says that after you have been at work very hard it’s like unstringing the bow; and so it is.
From The Ocean Cat's Paw The Story of a Strange Cruise by Stacey, W. S. (Walter S.)
The good old priest, in the center of an attentive circle, is unstringing a few observations.
From Light by Wray, Fitzwater
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
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.
"Maybe it's too early yet for the unstringing to begin!"
From The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains by Wister, Owen
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
She unstrung the bow and picked up the arrows she had dropped.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
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.
