stringer

[string-er] /ˈstrɪŋ ər/
noun
1.
a person or thing that strings.
2.
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.
a longitudinal reinforcement in the fuselage or wing of an airplane.
6.
Also called string correspondent. Journalism. 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.
Compare staffer (def 2).
7.
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.
Origin
1375-1425; late Middle English; see string, -er1
Related forms
restringer, noun
British Dictionary definitions for stringer

stringer

/ˈstrɪŋə/
noun
1.
(architect)
  1. a long horizontal beam that is used for structural purposes
  2. another name for stringboard
2.
(nautical) a longitudinal structural brace for strengthening the hull of a vessel
3.
a journalist retained by a newspaper or news service on a part-time basis to cover a particular town or area
Word Origin and History for stringer
n.

"newspaper correspondent paid by length of copy," 1950, probably from earlier figurative sense of "one who strings words together" (1774); agent noun from string (v.).