string to one's bow

string to one's bow noun: a skill, ability or resource.

Noun

string to one's bow (plural strings to one's bow)

(idiomatic) A skill, ability or resource.
- McGough has not a string to his bow. He had no friends behind him; that was the trouble.1932, Western Australia. Parliament, Parliamentary Debates
- I feel doing the course would provide me with another string to my bow, and hopefully alongside the jewellery and card making, I would be able to be a freelance therapist and make the workload and times workable for me.2013, Michelle Flatt, Wish It Wasn't M.E.: Living With Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 122
(idiomatic) A lover, paramour or suitor, especially one of many.
- Massimilla was no coquette. She had no second string to her bow, no secondo, no terzo, no patito.1837, Honoré de Balzac, Massimilla Doni, Delphi Classics, →ISBN
- Grisi now had another string to her bow in the form of the tenor, Mario, who was fast becoming putty in her hands.2014, Barbara Kendall-Davies, Life and Work of Pauline Viardot Garcia, vol. I: The Years of Fame 1836-1863 Second Edition, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, →ISBN, page 152

plural	strings to one's bow

What does string to one's bow mean?: String to one's bow means a skill, ability or resource.
What part of speech is string to one's bow?: String to one's bow is a noun.
What is the plural of string to one's bow?: The plural of string to one's bow is strings to one's bow.

Adapted from Wiktionary: string to one's bow (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-string to one's bow.ogg.

Cite this entry: “string to one's bow.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/string_to_one%27s_bow. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.