string

A long, thin and flexible structure made from threads twisted together.

Noun

A long, thin and flexible structure made from threads twisted together.
- Round Ormond's knee thou tiest the mystic string. - 1700, Matthew Prior, Carmen Seculare. for the Year 1700:
Synonyms: cord rope line thread twine
Any similar long, thin and flexible object.
- a violin string
- a bowstring
1. (music) A segment of wire (typically made of plastic or metal) or other material used as vibrating element on a musical instrument.
2. (sports) A length of nylon or other material on the head of a racquet.
A thread or cord on which a number of objects or parts are strung or arranged in close and orderly succession; hence, a line or series of things arranged on a thread, or as if so arranged.
- a string of shells or beads
- a string of sausages
- a string of islands - 1776–1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC:
A cohesive substance taking the form of a string.
- The string of spittle dangling from his chin was most unattractive
A series of items or events.
- In 1933, disgusted and discouraged after a string of commercial failures, Clara quit the film business forever. She was twenty-six. - 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and...
- a string of successes
Synonyms: sequence series
A slightly elevated (long, thin) peat ridge in a bog.
- Strings and Flarks[:] The two most conspicuous land form patterns in water tracks are fields of tree islands and networks of strings and flarks. The origin of strings and flarks is a controversial subject that has been...
- […] strings and flarks are again aligned along the contours, but the flarks are much wider and are often drier. Where the flarks are flooded they are curiously reminiscent of a system of terraced paddy fields […] -...
- […] strings and flarks is scarcely noticeable and it is the intermediate level (relative to the water table) between the higher, drier strings, and the low, wet flarks, which dominates. Such mires have an almost...
Synonyms: kermi

Coordinate Terms: flark
The members of a sports team or squad regarded as most likely to achieve success. (Perhaps metaphorical as the "strings" that hold the squad together.) Often first string, second string etc.
In various games and competitions, a certain number of turns at play, of rounds, etc.
A drove of horses, or a group of racehorses kept by one owner or at one stable.
An ordered sequence of text characters stored consecutively in memory and capable of being processed as a single entity.
A stringed instrument.
The stringed instruments as a section of an orchestra, especially those played by a bow, or the persons playing those instruments.
Synonyms: string section

Origin

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 (“to tighten”), Ancient Greek στραγγαλόομαι (strangalóomai, “to strangle”), from στραγγάλη (strangálē, “halter”), Ancient Greek στραγγός (strangós, “tied together, entangled, twisted”).

Verb

To put (items) on a string.
- You can string these beads on to this cord to make a colorful necklace.
To put strings on (something).
- It is difficult to string a tennis racket properly.
To form into a string or strings, as a substance which is stretched, or people who are moving along, etc.
To drive the ball against the end of the table and back, in order to determine which player is to open the game.
To deliberately state that a certain bird is present when it is not; to knowingly mislead other birders about the occurrence of a bird, especially a rarity; to misidentify a common bird as a rare species.
- To be honest, you'd be better off trying to string a Skylark as a Richard's Pipit rather than as a Pectoral Sandpiper. - 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 81:
- For instance he might see a White-eared Honeyeater, a not uncommon bird in the heathy areas at Bunyip, but in his excitement to call it, something in his brain scrambled and came out as: `White-cheeked Honeyeater!'...