[f. prec. sb. The pa. t. and pple. ought to be bowstringed, but bowstrung is also found, from the vb. to STRING.]
trans. To strangle with a bow-string.
1803. Edin. Rev., I. 359. The vizier who commands a vanquished army … is generally bowstringed.
1840. Poe, Wks., 1864, I. 132. It was high time for her to get up and be bowstrung—a thing very little more pleasant than hanging, only a trifle more genteel!
1884. Graphic, 23 Aug., 204/2. He took his bow and bowstrung him.
Hence Bowstringer and Bowstrung ppl. a.
1820. Byron, Juan, V. cxlvii. His lately bowstrung brother caused his rise.
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 426. The first settler was chief of the bow stringers who attended his [the Conqueror’s] army.
