string along

verb

strung along; stringing along; strings along

transitive verb

1

: to keep waiting

strung him along until the boss was back from lunch

2

: deceive, fool

stringing us along with ruses and red herrings

—John Powers

intransitive verb

: go along, agree

held her tongue and strung along with the rest of them

Synonyms

• bamboozle
• beguile
• bluff
• buffalo
• burn
• catch
• con
• cozen
• deceive
• delude
• dupe
• fake out
• fool
• gaff
• gammon
• gull
• have
• have on [chiefly British]
• hoax
• hoodwink
• hornswoggle
• humbug
• juggle
• misguide
• misinform
• mislead
• snooker
• snow
• spoof
• suck in
• sucker
• take in
• trick

Examples of string along in a Sentence

the student succeeded in stringing even his teachers along with his tales of family hardships

Recent Examples on the Web

Not asking me out, of course, just stringing along a purposeless conversation. —R29 Team, refinery29.com, 2 Sep. 2024

The two most dramatic peaks at Brainard Lake are Mount Toll and Mount Audubon, part of a stunning cluster of mountains strung along the Continental Divide that is visible from Boulder and much of northern Colorado. —John Meyer, The Denver Post, 12 Aug. 2024

Losing with an intention is a much better option than being strung along season after season with no hope for a long, fun playoff run in sight. —Candace Buckner, Washington Post, 27 June 2024

Published in March 2023, the coverage exposed the negligence of real estate developer Doug Cox, who strung along buyers who paid down payments for 4,000-square-foot townhouses in Coconut Grove in 2018. —Miami Herald Staff Report, Miami Herald, 21 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1914, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Kids Definition

string along

verb

1

: to go along : agree

string along with the majority

2

: deceive sense 1, fool

would string us along with false promises