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
The scene is one to strike dumb with awe, or to unstring the nerves; one might stand in silent astonishment, another would burst into tears.
From Our Italy by Charles Dudley Warner
What I have recently gone through with is quite enough to unstring the nerves of a stronger woman than I am, and what must be my condition?
From An Arkansas Planter by Opie Percival Read
Mr. Snobbe requests all persons having nerves to be unstrung to unstring them now.
From The Dreamers A Club by John Kendrick Bangs
That such emotion could so unstring Louis Arnold was a marvel.
From Other Things Being Equal by Emma Wolf
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
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 James Payn
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 W. S. (Walter S.) Stacey
Did he—as when, hunting in the forest of Rouen, he got the news of Harold's coronation—play with his bow, stringing and unstringing it nervously, till he had made up his mighty mind?
From Hereward, the Last of the English by Charles Kingsley
"Maybe it's too early yet for the unstringing to begin!"
From The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister
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
Then, to Peter’s shock, she unstrung his wires.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
