a. [f. STRING sb. + -Y1.]
1. Resembling string or fiber; consisting of string-like pieces. Chiefly applied to vegetable or animal tissues, esp. meat when its fibers have become tough.
1669. W. Jackson, in Phil. Trans., IV. 1061. Mosses … are a kind of Moorish boggy ground, very stringy, and fatt.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., II. 155. The Radishes that are sown on hot Beds … are more apt to grow hollow and stringy. Ibid., Dict., Sticky or Stringy, is said of Roots, when not kindly or running to Seed.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. i. 165. We usually preferred the tops of the turnips to the roots, which were often stringy.
1829. G. Head, Forest Scores N. Amer., 224. As to the woodpecker … His flesh was … lean and stringy.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home, Glimpses Eng. Poverty, II. 189. Bits and gobbets of lean meat,… tough and stringy morsels.
1884. Manch. Exam., 12 Nov., 8/2. Dates which are rather stringy than sweet.
b. spec. of timber (see quot.).
1843. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 406/1. Deals that, when acted upon by the saw, do not form sawdust, but are torn into long strings or fibres, and, on that account, termed ‘stringy.’
2. Of a person, the body, etc.: Thin; exhibiting sinew rather than flesh.
1833. Sir F. B. Head, Bubbles fr. Brunnens, (1834), 316. The stringy, weather-beaten features of the mountain peasant, were changed for countenances pulpy, fleshy, and evidently better fed.
1838. D. Jerrold, Men of Char., I. II. iii. 48. A stringy little man of about fifty.
1879. Meredith, Egoist, xxi. Rather pale and stringy from his cold swim.
3. Of liquid or viscous matter: Containing or forming glutinous thread-like parts; ropy.
1694. Addison, Virg. Georg., IV. 49. For this they hoard up glew, whose clinging drops, Like pitch, or bird-lime, hang in stringy ropes.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1266. (Varnish) Keep it boiling until it feels strong and stringy between the fingers.
1846. Mechanics’ Mag., 31 Oct., 427/2. When the glass was disposed to be wavy (ondé) or stringy (cordé) an iron tool was introduced into it.
1875. J. Priestley, in Phil. Trans., CLXVI. 509. A stringy mucus.
4. Of the voice: ? Resembling the tone of a stretched string.
1820. Q. Mus. Mag., II. 257, note. The effect of MR. BARTLEMAN’s voice is often stringy, and of MR. BRAHAM’s almost always either reedy or overbroke.
