ppl. a. [pa. pple. of STRING v.]
1. Furnished or fitted with strings or a string. Cf. STRINGED a. 1, 1 b. Now rare or Obs.
1695. Blackmore, Pr. Arth., IV. 65. Choice Instruments, some Strung, and some of Wind.
1714. Gay, Fan, II. 40. Ceres is with the bending Sickle seen, And the strung Bow points out the Cynthian Queen.
1754. Boyer, Gt. Theat. Honour (ed. 2), 116. Strung, Adj. (is used to express the Strings of any thing), Lié, Cordé, Cordonné.
2. Threaded on a string.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Thevenot’s Trav., III. 29. He found twenty two Pound weight of strung Pearls.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XV. 702/2. [Pyrotechny] Strung stars.
1901. Alldridge, Sherbro, xv. 145. None of the women wear any clothes, there is simply a sufficiency of strung beads around their waists.
1907. Arbroath Guide, 15 June, 2. The long line of ‘strung’ whitings overhead swing with the breeze.
3. Strung out: spread out in a straggling line.
1902. Daily Chron., 5 March, 7/4. The strung-out line of pursuers.
1914. Blackw. Mag., Nov., 588/1. His father met his death in a fight with Mahsud raiders who had attacked the strung-out Nasr ‘kafila’ on its way down the Gomul.
4. In the sense of STRING v. 4. a. Of nerves, feelings, etc.: In a state of tension. Also strung-up. b. With prefixed adv., finely-, highly-strung: said of persons with reference to their nervous organization or condition.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xiv. For, when your finely strung people are out of sorts, they must have everybody else unhappy likewise.
1853. Mrs. Gaskell, Ruth, xvi. When there was nothing to decide upon,… Ruth’s mind relaxed from its strung-up state.
1875. Whyte-Melville, Katerfelto, xviii. On Waif’s strung nerves and weary frame it jarred acutely.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 855. We have already seen how highly strung and excitable the subjects of chorea usually are.
1900. Daily News, 17 May, 3/2. The strung thought, intense vision of statesmen.
1910. B. Capes, Jemmy Abercraw, II. xvii. She stopped, and faced about, her eyes burning, strung passion in her attitude.
