diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index efcef4228c83f..0347dd7f42456 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -461,6 +461,11 @@ Library improvements
   * `Char` is now a subtype of `AbstractChar`, and most of the functions that
     take character arguments now accept any `AbstractChar` ([#26286]).
 
+  * `String(array)` now accepts an arbitrary `AbstractVector{UInt8}`. For `Vector`
+    inputs, it "steals" the memory buffer, leaving them with an empty buffer which
+    is guaranteed not to be shared with the `String` object. For other types of vectors
+    (in particular immutable vectors), a copy is made and the input is not truncated ([#26093]).
+
   * `Irrational` is now a subtype of `AbstractIrrational` ([#24245]).
 
   * Introduced the `empty` function, the functional pair to `empty!` which returns a new,
@@ -1398,6 +1403,7 @@ Command-line option changes
 [#26009]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/26009
 [#26071]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/26071
 [#26080]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/26080
+[#26093]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/26093
 [#26149]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/26149
 [#26154]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/26154
 [#26156]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/26156
diff --git a/base/array.jl b/base/array.jl
index 53cb97ed7fe17..3bb6c89d00e7a 100644
--- a/base/array.jl
+++ b/base/array.jl
@@ -942,7 +942,7 @@ function resize!(a::Vector, nl::Integer)
     l = length(a)
     if nl > l
         ccall(:jl_array_grow_end, Cvoid, (Any, UInt), a, nl-l)
-    else
+    elseif nl != l
         if nl < 0
             throw(ArgumentError("new length must be ≥ 0"))
         end
diff --git a/base/strings/string.jl b/base/strings/string.jl
index 100364b0f8207..88a5f264c5118 100644
--- a/base/strings/string.jl
+++ b/base/strings/string.jl
@@ -16,19 +16,22 @@ const ByteArray = Union{Vector{UInt8},Vector{Int8}}
 # String constructor docstring from boot.jl, workaround for #16730
 # and the unavailability of @doc in boot.jl context.
 """
-    String(v::Vector{UInt8})
-
-Create a new `String` from a vector `v` of bytes containing
-UTF-8 encoded characters.   This function takes "ownership" of
-the array, which means that you should not subsequently modify
-`v` (since strings are supposed to be immutable in Julia) for
-as long as the string exists.
-
-If you need to subsequently modify `v`, use `String(copy(v))` instead.
+    String(v::AbstractVector{UInt8})
+
+Create a new `String` object from a byte vector `v` containing UTF-8 encoded
+characters. If `v` is `Vector{UInt8}` it will be truncated to zero length and
+future modification of `v` cannot affect the contents of the resulting string.
+To avoid truncation use `String(copy(v))`.
+
+When possible, the memory of `v` will be used without copying when the `String`
+object is created. This is guaranteed to be the case for byte vectors returned
+by [`take!`](@ref) on a writable [`IOBuffer`](@ref) and by calls to
+[`read(io, nb)`](@ref). This allows zero-copy conversion of I/O data to strings.
+In other cases, `Vector{UInt8}` data may be copied, but `v` is truncated anyway
+to guarantee consistent behavior.
 """
-function String(v::Array{UInt8,1})
-    ccall(:jl_array_to_string, Ref{String}, (Any,), v)
-end
+String(v::AbstractVector{UInt8}) = String(copyto!(StringVector(length(v)), v))
+String(v::Vector{UInt8}) = ccall(:jl_array_to_string, Ref{String}, (Any,), v)
 
 """
     unsafe_string(p::Ptr{UInt8}, [length::Integer])
@@ -64,8 +67,6 @@ unsafe_wrap(::Type{Vector{UInt8}}, s::String) = ccall(:jl_string_to_array, Ref{V
 
 (::Type{Vector{UInt8}})(s::CodeUnits{UInt8,String}) = copyto!(Vector{UInt8}(undef, length(s)), s)
 
-String(a::AbstractVector{UInt8}) = String(copyto!(StringVector(length(a)), a))
-
 String(s::CodeUnits{UInt8,String}) = s.s
 
 ## low-level functions ##
diff --git a/src/array.c b/src/array.c
index b5f21b98372ef..b139b0935429f 100644
--- a/src/array.c
+++ b/src/array.c
@@ -434,13 +434,14 @@ JL_DLLEXPORT jl_array_t *jl_pchar_to_array(const char *str, size_t len)
 
 JL_DLLEXPORT jl_value_t *jl_array_to_string(jl_array_t *a)
 {
+    size_t len = jl_array_len(a);
     if (a->flags.how == 3 && a->offset == 0 && a->elsize == 1 &&
         (jl_array_ndims(a) != 1 ||
-         ((a->maxsize + sizeof(void*) + 1 <= GC_MAX_SZCLASS) == (jl_array_len(a) + sizeof(void*) + 1 <= GC_MAX_SZCLASS)))) {
+         ((a->maxsize + sizeof(void*) + 1 <= GC_MAX_SZCLASS) == (len + sizeof(void*) + 1 <= GC_MAX_SZCLASS)))) {
         jl_value_t *o = jl_array_data_owner(a);
         if (jl_is_string(o)) {
             a->flags.isshared = 1;
-            *(size_t*)o = jl_array_len(a);
+            *(size_t*)o = len;
             a->nrows = 0;
 #ifdef STORE_ARRAY_LEN
             a->length = 0;
@@ -449,7 +450,12 @@ JL_DLLEXPORT jl_value_t *jl_array_to_string(jl_array_t *a)
             return o;
         }
     }
-    return jl_pchar_to_string((const char*)jl_array_data(a), jl_array_len(a));
+    a->nrows = 0;
+#ifdef STORE_ARRAY_LEN
+    a->length = 0;
+#endif
+    a->maxsize = 0;
+    return jl_pchar_to_string((const char*)jl_array_data(a), len);
 }
 
 JL_DLLEXPORT jl_value_t *jl_pchar_to_string(const char *str, size_t len)
@@ -1016,6 +1022,8 @@ JL_DLLEXPORT void jl_array_del_beg(jl_array_t *a, size_t dec)
         jl_bounds_error_int((jl_value_t*)a, dec);
     if (__unlikely(a->flags.isshared))
         array_try_unshare(a);
+    if (dec == 0)
+        return;
     jl_array_del_at_beg(a, 0, dec, n);
 }
 
@@ -1026,6 +1034,8 @@ JL_DLLEXPORT void jl_array_del_end(jl_array_t *a, size_t dec)
         jl_bounds_error_int((jl_value_t*)a, 0);
     if (__unlikely(a->flags.isshared))
         array_try_unshare(a);
+    if (dec == 0)
+        return;
     jl_array_del_at_end(a, n - dec, dec, n);
 }
 
diff --git a/test/strings/basic.jl b/test/strings/basic.jl
index a63d618c2633c..030fa3be66f06 100644
--- a/test/strings/basic.jl
+++ b/test/strings/basic.jl
@@ -3,8 +3,21 @@
 using Random
 
 @testset "constructors" begin
-    @test String([0x61,0x62,0x63,0x21]) == "abc!"
+    v = [0x61,0x62,0x63,0x21]
+    @test String(v) == "abc!" && isempty(v)
     @test String("abc!") == "abc!"
+    @test String(0x61:0x63) == "abc"
+
+    # Check that resizing empty source vector does not corrupt string
+    b = IOBuffer()
+    write(b, "ab")
+    x = take!(b)
+    s = String(x)
+    resize!(x, 0)
+    empty!(x) # Another method which must be tested
+    @test s == "ab"
+    resize!(x, 1)
+    @test s == "ab"
 
     @test isempty(string())
     @test eltype(GenericString) == Char