Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To untie the lashing of; loose.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Nautical, to loose, unfasten, or separate, as something lashed or tied down.

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

  • transitive verb (Naut.) To loose, as that which is lashed or tied down.

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

  • verb transitive To unfasten.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb untie the lashing of

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ lash

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Examples

  • While the man lay by the fire and wept, she cooked, and in the morning helped lash the sleds, and in the evening to unlash them.

    GRIT OF WOMEN 2010

  • The U.K. finance minister is said to be preparing to unlash - unleash, even, a super tax when he has his pre-budget report.

    CNN Transcript Dec 8, 2009 2009

  • Slowly, carefully, the thirty-two sledge-pullers worked together to unlash the heavy coffin and lower it down precisely angled boards to its temporary resting place on the wooden superstructure just above the rectangle of black water.

    The Terror Simmons, Dan 2007

  • We had time to get a Coast Guard mayday off, get out on the deck, unlash the rubber zodiac dinghy from the deck, and get off the boat.

    CNN Transcript Apr 27, 2006 2006

  • We were forced to unlash all the strips running from side to side and insert supports, made of smaller bones, across the middle each way.

    Loaded Dice Swain, James 2004

  • I see no easy way down; we are forced to unlash Susan and help her down the jagged slope.

    Asimov's Science Fiction 2004

  • The hunters unlash their boat and head for the decoys.

    Confederacy of Silence Richard Rubin 2002

  • The hunters unlash their boat and head for the decoys.

    Confederacy of Silence Richard Rubin 2002

  • The hunters unlash their boat and head for the decoys.

    Confederacy of Silence Richard Rubin 2002

  • He snatched the lifting tackle free of the bitt to which it was tied; for a moment Sharina thought he was going to cut through the line instead of taking the few extra seconds to unlash it.

    Lord of the Isles 1997

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