string
n. C / Un. a thin, strong piece of material made by twisting threads together. You use it to tie things, hang objects, or make music on instruments like guitars.
n. a thin, flexible length of material composed of twisted strands. Often used as a collective term for the section of an orchestra comprising bowed instruments.
He tied the package with a piece of red string.
The tennis player had to replace a broken string on her racket before the final match began.
The physicist explained how the theory treats fundamental particles not as points, but as tiny, vibrating strings that determine the properties of all matter in the universe.
From Middle English string, streng, strynge, from Old English strenġ, from Proto-West Germanic strangi, from Proto-Germanic strangiz (“string”), from Proto-Indo-European *strengʰ- (“rope, cord, strand; to tighten”). Cognate with Scots string (“string”), Dutch streng (“cord, strand”), Low German strenge (“strand, cord, rope”), German Strang (“strand, cord, rope”), Danish streng (“string”), Swedish sträng (“string, cord, wire”), Icelandic strengur (“string”), Latvian stringt (“to be tight, wither”), Latin stringō (“I tighten”), Ancient Greek στραγγαλόομαι (strangalóomai, “to strangle”), from στραγγάλη (strangálē, “halter”), Ancient Greek στραγγός (strangós, “tied together, entangled, twisted”).
From Middle English stryngen, strengen, from the noun (see above).
a string of haira strand of hairWhile both refer to thin lines, 'strand' is the correct colocation for hair or fiber, whereas 'string' implies a manufactured cord.
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another string to one's bow
Another skill, ability or resource to be used in case of failure.
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apron string
A symbol of the domestic ties binding a male to a female (as a husband to a wife or a son to a mother).
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harp on one string
To dwell on a single subject with disagreeable or wearisome persistence.