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
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
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
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 Margaret Burnham
My nerves unstring, my friend; my flesh grows weak: "The good that I do I leave undone, The evil which I would not, that I do!"
From The Dynasts by Thomas Hardy
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
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
The good old priest, in the center of an attentive circle, is unstringing a few observations.
From Light by Fitzwater Wray
I have spent my days in stringing and in unstringing my instrument.
From Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore
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
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
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
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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.
