v. [UN-2 4 and 4 b.]
1. trans. To relax or remove the string(s) of (a lyre, bow, etc.).
(a) 1611. Florio, Discordare,…to vnstring, to vntune.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. ii. iii. xv. A musitian will string and vnstring his lute.
1725. Pope, Odyssey, VIII. 107. His golden lyre Demodocus unstrung.
a. 1774. W. Whitehead, Enthusiast, xv. Enthusiast, go, unstring thy lyre; In vain thou sing’st.
1869. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. xxi. 1. Our weakness unstrings our harps, but his strength tunes them anew.
(b) 1707. E. Smith, Phædra & Hippolitus, II. 24. His idle Horn on fragrant Mirtles hung, His Arrows scatter’d, and his Bow unstrung.
1833. J. Rennie, Alph. Angling, 52. Let us suppose that a bow … be bent and unstrung in the water.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Rural Sports, 507/1. To Unstring the Bow. [Directions follow.]
b. To undo the strings of (a purse). Also absol.
1681. Swearing Master, 1. Come Wil, unstring, and pay your Groat.
1685. Roxb. Ball. (1888), IV. 285. Now unstring your purse, and be kind to the poor.
1771. Colman, Prose Sev. Occas. (1787), III. 188. To swathe and dress it [he] first unstrings his purse.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., ix. My father wasn’t quite so ready to unstring as some other fathers I know of.
1884. Manch. Exam., 11 June, 5/1. They would have to unstring the national purse, and find the money.
2. To detach from a string. Also fig.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., VI. 29. For want of better Bands His Garland they unstring, and bind his Hands.
1763. Gibbon, Misc. Wks. (1814), V. 387. Unstringing the beads from the rosary of antiquity.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Africa, xvi. I. 367. Having unstrung the dice,… they rattle them between their hands, and drop them on the ground.
b. To detach from union; to separate, sever.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 46. So do but unstring my soul and body,… the thing is gone.
3. To render lax or weak; to disorder (the nerves, etc.).
1700. Dryden, Ovid’s Met., XII. 748. Light was the Wound; but in the Sinew hung The Point: and his disabled Wing unstrung.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 273. Terror and trepidation would unstring our nerves. Ibid., 498. So far as to unstring the very sinews of government.
1800. S. & Ht. Lee, Canterb. T., IV. 51. The very apprehension … might unstring her nerves.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, XI. xx. That voice unstrung his sinews, and he threw His dagger on the ground.
1845. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 26. His conscience must have been unstrung by the … engagement he had made.
b. To unnerve, upset (a person).
1897. Miss F. F. Montrésor, At the Cross-Roads, ii. 24. I could not live with so much sympathy, it would unstring me.
Hence Unstringing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1824. Lady Granville, Lett. (1894), I. 256. The fatigue and worry … have been very unstringing.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Cinnamon & Pearls, ii. 28. It gave more time for the unstringing of his nerves.
