strung out

• strung-out

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strung out (comparative more strung out, superlative most strung out)

1. (slang) Experiencing withdrawal symptoms of an addiction.

   Hyponyms: dope sick, junk sick

   While he was strung out, he ranted about conspiracies that he couldn't remember when he sobered.

   • 1971, Donald Goines, Dopefiend, page 20:

     She believed he was becoming strung out, if he wasn't hooked yet

   • 1983, Gordon Gano (lyrics and music), “Blister in the Sun”, in Violent Femmes, performed by Violent Femmes:

     When I'm out walking, I strut my stuff / Yeah, and I'm so strung out / I'm high as a kite, I just might / Stop to check you out

   • 2010, Jennifer Egan, “Goodbye, My Love”, in A Visit from the Goon Squad:

     When Ted Hollander first agreed to travel to Naples in search of his missing niece, he drew up for his brother-in-law, who was footing the bill, a plan for finding her that involved cruising the places where aimless, strung-out youths tended to congregate.

2. Widely spaced.

   After the storm the armada was strung out over the ocean, unable to cover each other in battle.

   • 1962 October, “Talking of Trains: The collisions at Connington”, in Modern Railways, page 232:

     "Permissive" working allows more than one train to be in a block section at one time but trains must be run at low speed in order to stop on sight behind the train in front. Such working is often authorised to allow freight trains to "bunch" together to await a path through a bottleneck instead of being strung out over several block sections, as would be necessary if absolute working were in force.

3. (idiomatic, informal) Prolonged in an unnecessary or time-filling manner.

   Then I had to sit through a long strung-out discussion about nothing in particular.

strung out

1. simple past and past participle of string out

• “strung out adj.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present