string up

present singular third person strings up · participle present stringing up · participle past strung up · past strung up

1. idiomatictransitiveTo kill (a person) by hanging, especially to lynch.

   I'd string up the whole lot if I had my way, Silver. Poachers and blackguards every one of them.

   1911, Fergus Hume, chapter 8, in Red Money

   1 more example

   After years of brutal repression, any member of Saddam's palace guard stands to be strung up from the nearest lamppost by a vengeful Iraqi populace.

   2003 February 17, J. Barry, E. Thomas, “Boots, Bytes and Bombs”, in Newsweek

   Synonyms: hang, scrag, forhang, Guy Fawkes, hang, ketch, send to the scaffold, scrag

2. idiomaticintransitiveobsoleteTo die by hanging.

   "And now, my friend," said the Captain, "let us understand each other. You have confessed yourself a spy, and should string up to the next tree."

   1818, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 13, in Rob Roy

   Synonyms: hang, swing, dance on a rope, dance on nothing, dance the hempen jig, dance the Tyburn jig, dance upon nothing, dangle

3. idiomatictransitiveTo suspend by means of rope, cord or similar material.

   He has scars on his ankles, feet and hands from where they strung him up with ropes and beat him.

   2007 March 7, Brigid Schulte, “Escaping a Painful Past To Find a Shaky Future”, in Washington Post, retrieved 24 Jan 2009

4. idiomatictransitiveTo concatenate; to link in a line.

   to string up a sentence