unstrung

[uhn-struhng]

verb

1. simple past tense and past participle of unstring.

adjective

1. having the string or strings loosened or removed, as a bow or harp.

2. weakened or nervously unhinged, as a person or a person's nerves; unnerved; discomposed.

   The incident left him unstrung.

unstrung

/ ʌnˈstrʌŋ /

adjective

1. emotionally distressed; unnerved

2. (of a stringed instrument) with the strings detached

Word History and Origins

Origin of unstrung¹

First recorded in 1590–1600, for the adjective

Example Sentences

Mr. Fitzsimons, a recreational trapper, was also carrying a six-foot-long unstrung archery bow and a fur pelt draped across his neck.

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He also wore a fur pelt around his neck and carried an unstrung wooden archery bow.

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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.

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He described his emotional state as “unstrung, debilitated by grief,” and he walked daily from his home in Boston, where he was then a junior church minister, to visit her tomb in Roxbury.

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He can be seen hurling his unstrung bow into the tunnel, striking the helmet of D.C.

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