Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To draw to one side, as a curtain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To draw aside or open.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To draw aside or open; to draw back.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To draw aside or open; to pull back a layer of fabric, e.g. a curtain.
  • verb To clear or erase part of a drawing.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ draw

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word undraw.

Examples

  • Tallien – I just now observed, that we must undraw the veil.

    Newspapers 2007

  • Seeing the faint light of early day without, the girl rose to undraw the curtain.

    Oliver Twist 2007

  • Upon entering the room he felt his limbs tremble, his heart flutter, his tongue falter; he attempted to undraw the curtain, and called for a light to the bedside.

    Candide 2007

  • There never was any discomfort happened to mortal man, but some little ray of consolation would dart in, if the wretch was not so much a wretch, as to draw, instead of undraw, the curtain, to keep it out.

    Clarissa Harlowe 2006

  • Emily presently heard his steps descending the stairs within, and then the heavy chain fall, and the bolts undraw of a small postern door, which he opened to admit the party.

    The Mysteries of Udolpho 2004

  • As she surveyed this dismal place, she perceived a door on the opposite side of the stair-case, and, anxious to know whether it would lead her to Madame Montoni, she tried to undraw the bolts, which fastened it.

    The Mysteries of Udolpho 2004

  • Mayhap there'll be something for you to draw-and then undraw-later on.

    The Dark Tower King, Stephen 2004

  • If the reader blame me for not assisting him to determine this, -- if he ask me why I do not undraw the curtain and disclose the picture, -- I reply in the words of the painter Zeuxis, when the same question was addressed to him, on exhibiting his master-piece of imitative art -- 'The curtain _is_ the picture.'

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847 Various

  • I feel the helmet on my head; I wave the standard over it; brave men smile upon me; beautiful maidens pull them gently back by the scarf, and will not let them break my slumber, nor undraw the curtain.

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 53, No. 327, January, 1843 Various

  • Joseph, who "mainly contributed," with those earnest, honest fingers of his to undraw the royal purse-strings, so that the three granddaughters may now keep the wolf from the door, as their immortal grandfather kept the foe from the "silver-girt isle."

    Mr. Punch`s history of modern England, Volume I -- 1841-1857 Charles Larcom 1921

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.