1. Having the string(s) relaxed or removed: a. Of a harp, etc.
1598. Florio, Scordato,… put out of tune, vnstrung.
1633. [? F. Davison], Ps. 137, iii. Our mute harpes, untun’d, unstrung, Up wee hung On greene willowes.
1694. Prior, Hymn to Sun, viii. ’Till Nature’s Musick lyes unstrung.
1738. Wesley, Ps. CXXXVII. ii. Our Harps … We cast aside, untun’d, unstrung.
1820. Byron, Juan, V. xxxvi. (MS.). As silent as an unstrung drum.
1821. Shelley, Adonais, xxxvi. The song, Whose master’s hand is cold, whose silver lyre unstrung.
1871. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, 333. The unstrung tuneless harp.
transf. 1613. Campion, Descr. Lords Maske, Wks. (1909), 99. The good old Sage is silenc’t, her free tongue That made such melodie, is now vnstrung.
1646. Crashaw, Steps Temple, Ps. 137, 21. O may at once my tongue Lose this same busie speaking art, Unpearch’t, her vocall Arteries unstrung.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 728. His voice, unstrung, Grew tremulous, and mov’d derision more Than rev’rence.
b. Of a bow. Also = not strung.
1744. W. Whitehead, Atys & Adrastus, 259. Behind him hung His rat’ling Quiver, and his Bow unstrung.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), II. 209/2. Now the long-bow (when unstrung) may be most conveniently covered.
1831. G. P. R. James, Phil. Augustus, I. iv. His features … had expanded like an unstrung bow.
1856. E. FitzGerald, Salámán (1879), 69. Salámán Call’d for an unstrung Bow—himself the cord Fitted unhelpt.
2. Weakened, relaxed; unnerved.
1692. Dryden, Don Sebastian, V. iii. These Sinews are not yet so much unstrung, To fail me.
1746. Hervey, Medit. Among Tombs, 57. The Nervous Arm is unstrung; the brawny Sinews are relaxed.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., II. 49. In the Sirocco wind at Naples,… the whole system is unstrung, and the nerves seem to lose … their tension.
1847. C. Brontë, J. Eyre, xxix. It gave new tone to my unstrung nerves.
1866. Le Fanu, All in Dark, v. Their entertainer remained behind unstrung and melancholic.
