String1, n.
n. [A-S. string, strenge, streng, D. streng, O. D. stringhe, Dan. & Sw. sträng, Icel. strengr, Ger. strang. See infra.]
Sense 1. A small rope, line, or cord, or a slender strip of leather or other like substance, used for fastening or tying things.
Sense 2. A ribbon.
Round Ormond's knee thou tiest the mystic string. Prior.
Sense 3. A thread on which any thing is filed; and hence, a line of things; as, a string of shells or beads.
Sense 4. A strip of leather, or the like, by which the covers of a book are held together. [Rare.]
I know many of those that pretend to be great rabbies in these studies have scarce saluted them from the strings and the title-page. Milton.
Sense 5. The cord of a musical instrument, as of a harpsichord, harp, or violin; as, an instrument of ten strings.
Me softer airs befit, and softer strings Of lute, or viol, still. Milton.
Sense 6. A fiber, as of a plant.
Duckweed putteth forth a little string into the water, from the bottom. Bacon.
Sense 7. A nerve or tendon of an animal body.
The string of his tongue was loosed. Mark vii. 35.
Sense 8. The line or cord of a bow.
He twangs the quivering string. Pope.
Sense 9. A series of things connected or following in succession; any concatenation of things; as, a string of arguments; a string of propositions.
Sense 10. (Ship-building.) The highest range of planks in a ship's ceiling, or that between the gunwale and the upper edge of the upper deck ports.
Sense 11. The tough substance that unites the valves of the pericarp of leguminous plants, and which is readily pulled off; as, the strings of beans.
Sense 12. (Mining.) A small, filamentous ramification of a metallic vein. Ure.
Sense 13. (Arch.) A string-course. See STRING-COURSE.
To have two strings to one's bow, to have two expedients for executing a project or gaining a purpose.