fiddle-string

Yakub, whose limbs had mended to the point where he could move with only a little stiffness, was wound up like a fiddle-string with excitement; he was smiling gleefully as he touched my hand in greeting and motioned me to sit.

The Sky Writer Geoff Barbanell 2010

It bred a kind of wild desperation in the others; Stuart was shivering with impatience as he dropped beside me into Paitingi's spy-boat, drawing his pistol and shoving it back in his belt, then doing the same thing over again; even Paitingi, in the bow, was taut as a fiddle-string, snapping at the Lingas and twitching at his red beard.

Flashman's Lady Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1977

Really, his jaws must have been pretty tough to have not given way under the furious flings and writhings he made to release himself; for the strong half-inch manilla rope that held him tethered was stretched like a fiddle-string, its strands all quivering with the strain upon it.

The White Squall A Story of the Sargasso Sea J. [Illustrator] Schonberg

"I am your cousin now, is it not?" said she, with a little smile, and I caught her as she swayed, and all her body would be a-quiver like a fiddle-string.

The McBrides A Romance of Arran John Sillars

Carmichael still took no notice of these orders; but said his feelings were "worked up to a fiddle-string."

Recollections of Old Liverpool A Nonagenarian

His excitement communicated itself to the commander aft, who was looking over the stern and anxiously watching the water, to see if our rudder, which was kept amidships, made any ripple on the surface; though, wide awake, our officer was keeping a keen eye, too, on the manilla hawser attached to the stream anchor, which was in such a ticklish state of tension from the strain that it was singing out like a fiddle-string.

Young Tom Bowling The Boys of the British Navy John B. [Illustrator] Greene

The punctured arm throbbed and smarted painfully; every nerve in her body was stretched like a fiddle-string.

Juggernaut Alice Campbell

Another signal, after a brief wait, and the drum rolled faster, the line tautened like a fiddle-string, and the ponderous machine vibrated with the strain of its effort.

Big Timber A Story of the Northwest Bertrand W. Sinclair 1926

Sylvia shook like a roughly plucked fiddle-string.

The Bent Twig Dorothy Canfield Fisher 1918

She felt a momentary hot throb of excitement, as though her body were one great fiddle-string, twanging under a vigorously plucking thumb.

The Bent Twig Dorothy Canfield Fisher 1918