The Collaborative International Dictionary
String \String\ (str[i^]ng), n. [OE. string, streng, AS. streng; akin to D. streng, G. strang, Icel. strengr, Sw. str["a]ng, Dan. str[ae]ng; probably from the adj., E. strong (see Strong); or perhaps originally meaning, twisted, and akin to E. strangle.]
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A small cord, a line, a twine, or a slender strip of leather, or other substance, used for binding together, fastening, or tying things; a cord, larger than a thread and smaller than a rope; as, a shoe string; a bonnet string; a silken string.
--Shak.Round Ormond's knee thou tiest the mystic string.
--Prior. 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 succession; a concatenation; a chain; as, a string of shells or beads; a string of dried apples; a string of houses; a string of arguments. ``A string of islands.''
--Gibbon.A strip, as of leather, by which the covers of a book are held together.
--Milton.-
The cord of a musical instrument, as of a piano, harp, or violin; specifically (pl.), the stringed instruments of an orchestra, in distinction from the wind instruments; as, the strings took up the theme. ``An instrument of ten strings.''
--Ps. xxx. iii. 2.Me softer airs befit, and softer strings Of lute, or viol still.
--Milton. -
The line or cord of a bow.
--Ps. xi. 2.He twangs the grieving string.
--Pope. -
A fiber, as of a plant; a little, fibrous root.
Duckweed putteth forth a little string into the water, from the bottom.
--Bacon. -
A nerve or tendon of an animal body.
The string of his tongue was loosed.
--Mark vii. 35. (Shipbuilding) An inside range of ceiling planks, corresponding to the sheer strake on the outside and bolted to it.
(Bot.) The tough fibrous substance that unites the valves of the pericap of leguminous plants, and which is readily pulled off; as, the strings of beans.
(Mining) A small, filamentous ramification of a metallic vein.
--Ure.(Arch.) Same as Stringcourse.
(Billiards) The points made in a game.
In various indoor games, a score or tally, sometimes, as in American billiard games, marked by buttons threaded on a string or wire.
In various games, competitions, etc., a certain number of turns at play, of rounds, etc.
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(Billiards & Pool)
The line from behind and over which the cue ball must be played after being out of play as by being pocketed or knocked off the table; -- called also string line.
Act of stringing for break.
A hoax; a trumped-up or ``fake'' story. [Slang]
a sequence of similar objects or events sufficiently close in time or space to be perceived as a group; a string of accidents; a string of restaurants on a highway.
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(Physics) A one-dimensional string-like mathematical object used as a means of representing the properties of fundamental particles in string theory, one theory of particle physics; such hypothetical objects are one-dimensional and very small (10^ -33 cm) but exist in more than four spatial dimensions, and have various modes of vibration. Considering particles as strings avoids some of the problems of treating particles as points, and allows a unified treatment of gravity along with the other three forces (electromagnetism, the weak force, and the strong force) in a manner consistent with quantum mechanics. See also string theory. String band (Mus.), a band of musicians using only, or chiefly, stringed instruments. String beans.
A dish prepared from the unripe pods of several kinds of beans; -- so called because the strings are stripped off.
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Any kind of beans in which the pods are used for cooking before the seeds are ripe; usually, the low bush bean.
To have two strings to one's bow, to have a means or expedient in reserve in case the one employed fails.
Wiktionary
n. (context music English) A music group consisting solely of stringed instruments.
Wikipedia
A string band is an old-time music or jazz ensemble made up mainly or solely of string instruments. String bands were popular in the 1920s and 1930s, and are among the forerunners of modern country music and bluegrass.
Usage examples of "string band".
The judge strolled the grounds in his linen suit and directed the chefs with a wave of his cigar and he in turn was followed by a string band of six musicians, all of them old, all serious, who stayed with him at every turn some three paces to the rear and playing the while.
And now the string band starts to bow and saw again whilst a choir of stunted virgins, in the screeching wail that passes for singing in these regions, intones a barbaric requiem entitled: AWFUL WARNING OF THE SPECTACLE OF A DECAPITATION.
The Minstrel Boy, his silver guitar in one hand and his girl in the other, went over to sit in with the string band.
In a corner a string band occupied a small stage and tried to make themselves heard above the general din.
Besides this, none of the fountains ever play, the string band that used to perform nightly in the ballroom has given place to a very expensive wireless set which one of the waiters knows how to operate, there is never any notepaper in the writing-room, and the sheets are not long enough for the beds.
Lemnitzer smiled broadly and saluted when the Hegerman String Band and the Mounted State Police from his native Pennsylvania passed by the Presidential Box in the reviewing stand.
The seven-piece string band playing from a dais opposite the buffet was pleasantly audible without amplifiers, despite conversations and the dancers' feet.
The seven-piece string band playing from a dais opposite the buffet was pleasantly audible without amplifiers, despite conversations and the dancers feet.
Her moans and exhortations were buried alive, under the sound of the heavyhooved belly dancer thumping around on the thin wooden floor to the music of the wooden whistle and string band.