unthread
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Verb
[edit]unthread (third-person singular simple present unthreads, present participle unthreading, simple past and past participle unthreaded)
- (transitive) To draw or remove a thread from.
- 1820, John Keats, “Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio.”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, stanza XXXVII, page 67:
- Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright / With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof / From the poor girl by magic of their light, / The while it did unthread the horrid woof / Of the late darken'd time,— […]
- 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Talisman, page 62:
- "Good and evil! good and evil!" thought he; "ye are mingled inextricably in the web of our being; and who may unthread the darker yarn?"
- (transitive) To loosen the connections of.
- (transitive) To make one's way through.