Stringy describes something that looks, feels, or behaves like string: thin, fibrous, and often unpleasantly tough or stretchy.

When you bite into a piece of overcooked chicken or tough celery, those annoying strands that get stuck in your teeth are stringy. Some cheeses, like mozzarella on pizza, turn beautifully stringy when melted, stretching from your slice to your mouth in long, connected threads. But other times stringy is less welcome: stringy hair hangs in limp, separate strands instead of looking full and healthy.

The word often carries a negative feeling, especially with food. Stringy meat is chewy and full of tough fibers that are hard to bite through. Stringy vegetables, like old green beans, have thick strands running through them that feel unpleasant to eat.

You might also hear it describe how something moves or drips. Glue becomes stringy when it's almost dry, forming thin threads between your fingers. Taffy pulls into long, stringy strands when you stretch it.

When describing a person's build, stringy means very thin and showing visible muscles or tendons, like a distance runner or someone who's all lean muscle without much body fat.