/string"euhr/ , n.
1. a person or thing that strings.
2. a long horizontal timber connecting upright posts.
3. Archit. string (def. 15b).
4. Civ. Engin. a longitudinal bridge girder for supporting part of a deck or railroad track between bents or piers.
5. a longitudinal reinforcement in the fuselage or wing of an airplane.
6. Also called string correspondent . Journalism. a part-time newspaper correspondent covering a local area for a paper published elsewhere: The Los Angeles paper has a correspondent in San Francisco but only a stringer in Seattle. Cf. staffer (def. 2).
7. a stout string, rope, etc., strung through the gills and mouth of newly caught fish, so that they may be carried or put back in the water to keep them alive or fresh.
8. a contestant, player, or other person ranked according to skill or accomplishment (used in combination): Most of the conductors at the opera house were third-stringers.
9. Mining. a small vein or seam of ore, coal, etc.
[ 1375-1425; late ME; see STRING, -ER 1 ]