to string someone along
17
7.5
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
dar largas (a alguien)
- If you care about her, end it now instead of stringing her along.
- just stringing you along
- keep stringing her along
- strung me along for several months
Examples
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- Let's string him along for a little while.
-
Come on, Glen, you can't keep stringing us along.
-
You gotta string him along.
-
So what were you going to do. . . just string me along until the hearing date?
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We can string them along for a couple of weeks and in that time, get them interested in a new project.
-
I knew you were stringing me along.
-
How did she know he wasn't just stringing her along?
Fiction book (1992) -
He's just been stringing us along, buying time.
Fiction book (1995) -
I'm just scared that she's stringing me along.
-
She decided to string someone along rather than tell the truth right away.
Synonyms
270
3.9
To make someone believe something that is not true to get an advantage
To trick someone to get their money
Antonyms
How Deceptive
- Offensive
3
8.6
382
6.1
- Informal
17
7.5
- Informal
24
6.0
87
3.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal parts suggest a metaphor of leading or keeping someone moving ('string' as binding/manipulating + 'along' as continuing), so learners can infer a notion of being led on. However, the specific sense of prolonged deception or false hope is a conventionalized, metaphorical extension that a B1 learner who only knows the constituents may not fully predict without exposure.
Etymology
The phrase string someone along may come from the image of a person led by a thin string, like a puppet, being pulled along with no real control. That's why it now means 'to deceive someone and keep them believing something false'.