| second string | |
| —n | |
| 1. | chiefly (Brit) an alternative course of action, etc, intended to come into use should the first fail (esp in the phrase a second string to one's bow) |
| 2. | a substitute or reserve player or team |
| —adj | |
| 3. | sport |
| a. being a substitute player | |
| b. being the second-ranked player of a team in an individual sport | |
| 4. | second-rate or inferior |
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |