[f. BOW sb.1 + STRING sb.]
1. The string of a bow; also fig.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, B vi. Tho saame Iewnes þou shalt fastyn slackely as a bowstryng vnocupyede.
1564. Act 8 Eliz., x. § 4. An Armouror, Fletcher or maker of Bowstrings.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 993. Sound will be conveyed to the Eare, by striking upon a Bow-string, if the Horne of the Bow be held to the Eare.
1809. Campbell, Gertrude, III. xiv. The bowstring of my spirit was not slack.
1814. Scott, Ld. of Isles, VI. xxii. At once ten thousand bow-strings ring, Ten thousand arrows fly!
2. As used in Turkey for strangling offenders.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 258. [He] commanded the executioner presently to strangle him with a bow string.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 79. The Turks can now … discharge their ministers by other methods than the bow-string.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1865), II. 45. As if apprenticed to the work, He ties the bowstring round the Turk.
3. Attrib. and Comb., as bowstring-maker; bowstring bridge, a bridge consisting of an arch and horizontal tie, to resist the horizontal thrust; hence bowstring-girder; bowstring hemp, plants of the genus Sanseviera, N. O. Liliaceæ, found both in Africa and India, of the fibers of which bow-strings are made.
1530. Palsgr., 200/2. Bowstryng maker faiseur de cordes a lare.
1724. Lond. Gaz., No. 6249/6. William Boyworth … Bow-string-maker.
1866. Treas. Bot., s.v. Sanseviera, The Bowstring Hemps are stemless perennial plants.
