The Collaborative International Dictionary
Unstring \Un*string"\, v. t. [1st pref. un- + string.]
To deprive of a string or strings; also, to take from a string; as, to unstring beads.
To loosen the string or strings of; as, to unstring a harp or a bow.
To relax the tension of; to loosen. ``His garland they unstring.''
--Dryden. Used also figuratively; as, his nerves were unstrung by fear.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive English) To remove the string or strings from. 2 (context transitive English) To shake the nerves of; to cause anxiety or panic in. 3 (cx transitive computing programming COBOL English) To split (a text string) into smaller strings by separating on a delimiter.
WordNet
Usage examples of "unstring".
Nothing but your earnest desire so repeatedly expressed, could have induced me to sit down to a task that has unstrung my nerves for months to come, and reinduced a shadow of the unspeakable horror which years after my deliverance continued to make my days and nights dreadful, and solitude insupportably terrific.
Then the weavers would eject the solid sphere from the wall, and, when the universe moved around the worldship, it would carry away the enormous unstrung pearls, like a river swirling soap bubbles to the sea.
He reached again to get the bow, but Taizu grabbed it up, unstrung it, and wrapped that and the quiver in the mat that had concealed it, while Wengadi gathered up the firepot and the rest of the evidence.
But before I could grasp the significance of the bowstrings being fingered or unstrung a deep harsh voice shouted in Caydish from the tower.
Volumnia gives Mr. Bucket to understand, in reply, that her sensitive mind is fully made up never to get the better of it as long as she lives, that her nerves are unstrung for ever, and that she has not the least expectation of ever smiling again.
But his faintness was more from loss of blood and the sudden unstringing of nerve and sense from the intense furious strain of the last few moments of battle than from the vital nature of the wound.
The sudden stunning shock unstrings his limbs and slackens the muscles in his neck.
I carefully folded my cloak and placed it in the wardrobe, draped the tailcoat over a chair, as the hotel valet would need to sponge and press it in the morning, undid my carefully knotted tie, and let out a sigh of relaxation as I removed my front collar stud, allowing the collar's two crimped ends to spring apart like the tips of an unstrung bow and the two halves of my starched shirt bosom to part company.
After the graveside service things began to break up, and they milled around for a time, talking to people they hadn't seen since the last biker funeral, then peeled off in twos and threes, roaring past the two state trooper cars which had apparently been summoned just in case, no doubt by nervous residents of the town, unstrung by the bearded, burly, helmeted visions which made such a powerful and flatulent sound as they moved through the town slowly in columns of four.
Just after Herzer recognized it, correctly, as a case for a recurve bow, she opened it up and removed the bow, which was unstrung.
He rode on, guiding Pips with his knees, the black-hafted spear thrust behind the saddle girth on the opposite side from his unstrung bow.
His unstrung Two Rivers bow was thrust through the saddle girth on one side, and the full quiver hung in front of the high-cantled saddle, balancing a long, narrow, neatly wrapped bundle.
Thrusting his unstrung bow under the saddle girth, he swung up into Stepper's saddle with the pack animal's lead in hand.
Their guards had lowered their spears and unstrung their arrows and were using the presence of their bodies to keep the Trouts from trying anything foolish.