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Showing results for on a string. Search instead for on+a+string.
Synonyms

on a string

Idioms  

  1. Under someone's control, as in She'll drop everything whenever Sam asks for something—he's got her on a string. This expression, alluding to pulling an animal on a leash, dates from the late 1500s, when it was put as in a string.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

At one point all of the magicians spontaneously do a show for one another, each of them taking part in a can-you-top-this series of illusions strung as close together as popcorn on a string.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 13, 2025

The single combat involves swinging a conker -- a hardened horse chestnut -- on a string at your opponent's nut with murderous venom, until one is smashed to pieces.

From Barron's • Oct. 17, 2025

As well as his own TV stand-up specials, Bargatze has appeared on a string of late-night talk shows including Seth Meyers, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon, as well as variety show Saturday Night Live.

From BBC • Sep. 13, 2025

The scientists also used mathematical modeling to see if the axon membrane influenced the shape or presence of the pearl on a string structure.

From Science Daily • Dec. 2, 2024

Didn’t it go just around in a circle, like a ball on a string?

From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.