stringer

UK: /ˈstrɪŋə/ US: /ˈstrɪŋɚ/ ,(string′ər)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

string•er /ˈstrɪŋɚ/   n. [countable]

1. a person or thing that strings.
2. Building a long horizontal timber connecting upright posts.
3. Journalism a part-time reporter or writer covering a local area for a newspaper, magazine, etc.
4. a performer ranked according to skill or accomplishment:
   The coach let the second- and third-stringers play.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

string•er  (string′ər), n. 

1. a person or thing that strings.
2. Building a long horizontal timber connecting upright posts.
3. Architecture string (def. 15b).
4. Civil Engineering a longitudinal bridge girder for supporting part of a deck or railroad track between bents or piers.
5. Aeronautics a longitudinal reinforcement in the fuselage or wing of an airplane.
6. Journalism Also called string correspondent. a part-time newspaper correspondent covering a local area for a paper published elsewhere:
   The Los Angeles paper has a correspondent in San Francisco but only a stringer in Seattle.
   Cf. staffer (def. 2).
7. Sport a stout string, rope, etc., strung through the gills and mouth of newly caught fish, so that they may be carried or put back in the water to keep them alive or fresh.
8. a contestant, player, or other person ranked according to skill or accomplishment (used in combination):
   Most of the conductors at the opera house were third-stringers.
9. Mining a small vein or seam of ore, coal, etc.

• 1375–1425; late Middle English; see string, -er¹

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

stringer / ˈstrɪŋə/ noun

1. a long horizontal beam that is used for structural purposes
2. another name for stringboard
3. a longitudinal structural brace for strengthening the hull of a vessel
4. a journalist retained by a newspaper or news service on a part-time basis to cover a particular town or area