unstring

That alone would’ve been enough for me to unstring my racquets and call it a career. 

From Newsweek ● Jun. 21, 2011

I myself often tremble for my life—art as a profession is so likely to unstring one's nerves.

From The German Classics, v. 20 Masterpieces of German Literature by Various

The scene is one to strike dumb with awe, or to unstring the nerves; one might stand in silent astonishment, another would burst into tears.

From Our Italy by Charles Dudley Warner

The morning is positive; in the evening we muse and dream and take our ease, we see our friends, we unstring the bow, we indulge our social instincts.

From The Last Harvest by John Burroughs

As we had no hearers we used to give wonderful expression to our singing, possibly it was lucky no one could hear us, for it would certainly unstring their nerves.

From Jethou or Crusoe Life in the Channel Isles by Ernest R. (Ernest Richard) Suffling

There was something horrible, unnatural in the silence, and I felt fear run down my back like ice, unstringing my muscles, sucking my heart.

From The Courtship of Morrice Buckler A Romance by A. E. W. (Alfred Edward Woodley) Mason

Uncle says that after you have been at work very hard it’s like unstringing the bow; and so it is.

From The Ocean Cat's Paw The Story of a Strange Cruise by W. S. (Walter S.) Stacey

"Maybe it's too early yet for the unstringing to begin!"

From The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister

Did he—as when, hunting in the forest of Rouen, he got the news of Harold's coronation—play with his bow, stringing and unstringing it nervously, till he had made up his mighty mind?

From Hereward, the Last of the English by Charles Kingsley

His liveliest sallies, his bitterest jests, were all reserved for these occasions, so that mirth or anger was forever unstringing the nerves of his competitors, and diminishing their chance of gain.

From Bred in the Bone by James Payn

By the time Gilgamesh sets out in search of immortality, he is already unstrung.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

He also wore a fur pelt around his neck and carried an unstrung wooden archery bow.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 13, 2023

That is not to say it’s historically unstrung along the lines of “The Great” or “Bridgerton” or Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette”; generally speaking, it stays put within its period.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2021

We’ll leave our gloves, with their humble histories, just as they are, somewhat unstrung by time and use, like us.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 30, 2021

Well, he is not a ghost; yet every nerve I have is unstrung: for a moment I am beyond my own mastery.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë