stringer

From string +‎ -er (“agent”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /stɹɪŋə/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /stɹɪŋɚ/

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɪŋə(ɹ)

stringer (plural stringers)

1. Someone who threads something; one who makes or provides strings, especially for bows.
   • 1545, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus:

     Be content to put your trust in honest stringers.

2. Someone who strings someone along.
3. A horizontal timber that supports upright posts, or supports the hull of a vessel.
   • 1945, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row:

     A startled man looked out the office window and then rushed for the door, but the boys were too quick for him. They were lying behind a wooden stringer in the lot before he even got near the door.

4. (carpentry) The side rail supporting the rungs of a ladder or the steps of a flight of stairs.

   Synonyms: stile, rail

5. A small screw-hook to which piano strings are sometimes attached.
6. (journalism) A freelance correspondent not on the regular newspaper staff, especially one retained on a part-time basis to report on events in a particular place.
   • 1991, Douglas Coupland, “Enter Hyperspace”, in Generation X, New York: St. Martin's Press, →OCLC:

     And he told a few stories about time he had spent in New York in the 1950s as a stringer for the Asahi newspapers… about meeting Diana Vreeland and Truman Capote and Judy Holiday.

7. (sports) A person who plays on a particular string.
8. (surfing) Wooden strip running lengthwise down the centre of a surfboard, for strength.
9. (baseball, slang, 1800s) A hard-hit ball.
10. (fishing) A cord or chain, sometimes with additional loops, that is threaded through the mouth and gills of caught fish.
    • 1970, Field & Stream, volume 75, number 7, page 76:

      "Okay, that's a keeper," Harold said as he netted the 3-pounder and put him on a stringer over the side of the boat.

11. A pallet or skid used when shipping less than truckload (LTL) freight. A platform typically constructed of timber or plastic designed such that freight may be stacked on top, able to be lifted by a forklift.
12. (obsolete) A libertine; a wencher.
    • 1607 (first performance), Francis Beaumont, “The Knight of the Burning Pestle”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

      A whoreson tyrant! He has been an old stringer in's days

13. (birdwatching) A person who deliberately states that a certain bird is present when it is not; one who knowingly misleads other birders about the occurrence of a bird, especially a rarity.
    • 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 82:

      [T]hose fellows know how to spot a stringer at work.

• “stringer”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• restring, ringster