The AI-powered English dictionary
plural bowstrings
The string of an archer's bow. examples
(historical) The string of an archer's bow, as used by the Turks for strangling offenders.
third-person singular simple present bowstrings, present participle bowstringing, simple past and past participle bowstrung or bowstringed
(transitive) To strangle with a bowstring. quotations examples
When the day broke […] it was high time for her to get up and be bowstrung—a thing very little more pleasant than hanging, only a trifle more genteel.
1850, Edgar Allan Poe, The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade
I have seen (on one of my imaginary tours) the Sultan of Turkey bowstring with his own hands one of his wives who had uncovered her face in public.
1909, O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), A Municipal Report