Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To reverse the winding or twisting of.
- intransitive verb To separate the tangled parts of; disentangle.
- intransitive verb To free (someone) of nervous tension or pent-up energy.
- intransitive verb To become unwound.
- intransitive verb To become free of nervous tension; relax.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To wind off; loose or separate, as what is wound or convolved; set free or loose: as, to
unwind thread or a ball. - To disentangle; free from entanglement.
- To admit of being unwound; become unwound: as, a skein that unwinds easily.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To be or become unwound; to be capable of being unwound or untwisted.
- transitive verb To wind off; to loose or separate, as what or convolved; to untwist; to untwine.
- transitive verb obsolete To disentangle.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
wind off ; toloose orseparate ; tountwist ; tountwine ; as, to unwind thread, to unwind a ball of yarn - verb transitive, obsolete To disentangle
- verb intransitive, slang To relax; to chill out; as, to rest and relieve of stress
- verb intransitive To be or become unwound; to be capable of being unwound or untwisted.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb become less tense, rest, or take one's ease
- verb cause to feel relaxed
- verb reverse the winding or twisting of
- verb separate the tangles of
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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(I believe the currently preferred Wall Street term is 'unwind' -- as in 'unwind the subprime mortgage mess'.)
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What do you do to try to unwind from a day's gauntlet of emotional and intellectual challenges?
Darryl Sollerh: The Dancing Parent -- "How Was Your Day?" Darryl Sollerh 2010
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What do you do to try to unwind from a day's gauntlet of emotional and intellectual challenges?
Darryl Sollerh: The Dancing Parent -- "How Was Your Day?" Darryl Sollerh 2010
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In this situation the selling pressure is exhausted by the time the death cross occurs and now the sideline money and unwind from the hedges can actually instigate a rally.
Golden Cross Flashes Green Light For More Gains Rocky White 2010
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But seriously, with the cathedral, the Devil's Staircase, the river and the architecture, it was really kinda idyllic -- a perfect way to unwind from a hectic fortnight of giddy traveling, and capped by a winding route home through the scenic small towns of the area, home to a bloody steak in plate-lickingly good port wine sauce courtesy of the culnary skills of Joonas.
Adventures of a Couch-Hopping Scribbler Part 3: Hail, Helsinki! Hal Duncan 2010
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What do you do to try to unwind from a day's gauntlet of emotional and intellectual challenges?
Darryl Sollerh: The Dancing Parent -- "How Was Your Day?" Darryl Sollerh 2010
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But seriously, with the cathedral, the Devil's Staircase, the river and the architecture, it was really kinda idyllic -- a perfect way to unwind from a hectic fortnight of giddy traveling, and capped by a winding route home through the scenic small towns of the area, home to a bloody steak in plate-lickingly good port wine sauce courtesy of the culnary skills of Joonas.
Archive 2010-06-01 Hal Duncan 2010
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It was his time to unwind from the day and change from being a colegue/boss/employee to a loving and caring husband and father he was.
snap 2007
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Sometimes when we travel here to our “second home,” it takes me a while to unwind from the pressures of work and family life back in Michigan.
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If he went into a bathroom and saw the toilet roll hung up to unwind from the back rather than the front, it drove him nuts.
Comments
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