unfight

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ fight.

Verb

unfight (third-person singular simple present unfights, present participle unfighting, simple past and past participle unfought)

1. To undo the effects of fighting (something).
   • 1720, [Thomas Gordon], “Of News-Writers”, in The Humourist: Being Essays Upon Several Subjects, […], volume I, London:  […] D. Browne, W. Mears, and F. Clay, […], page 3:

     We often catch an Author fighting Battles, and unfighting them in the ſame Paper. The Mention of Cannon and Gun-powder ſets his daring Heart on Fire, and he ſeems even fonder of dipping his Pen in Blood than in Ink.

   • 2000, Chris Adrian, Gob’s Grief, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, →ISBN, page 67:

     Walt was thinking they would go into the theater and embrace in the spot where Lincoln had died. Their marvelous passion would go out from them in waves, transforming time, history, and destiny, unmurdering Lincoln, unfighting the war, unkilling all those six hundred thousand, who would be drawn from death into the theater, where they would add their strong arms to the world-changing embrace, until at last a great historic love-pile was gathered in Washington City, a gigantic pearl with Gob and Walt the sand at its center.

   • 2015, Catherine Banner, The Heart at War (The Last Descendants Trilogy; Book III), [Toronto, Ont.]: Doubleday Canada, →ISBN, page 385:

     You can't ungrow a baby, or unshoot a bullet, or unfight a war. How could I have ever thought you could?

   • 2015, Willa Strayhorn, The Way We Bared Our Souls, New York, N.Y.: Razorbill, →ISBN, page 111:

     "Oh, come on, Ellen," Kit said. "You're lucky. It's not like you're dealing with life or death. You can master your disease any time. Just stop. Doing. Drugs. Meanwhile, the rest of us are kind of screwed. Thomas can't go back in time and unfight his battles. I can't bring back Lucita. That's forever."

   • 2021 December 2, @lipasxo, Twitter‎^[1], archived from the original on 2 March 2024:

     Hopefully he unfights the urge and goes nowhere near jake bc Jake doesn't like him.

   • 2022 September 8, u/Adrewmc, “What did the war Doctor do that supposedly brought shame or regret to his future regenerations?”, in Reddit‎^[2], r/doctorwho, archived from the original on 2 March 2024:

     Imagine a War in which both sides have access to time travel, while battle^[sic] are fought and unfought. Time creates rifts, the never was, the never will be. The never should have been. Battles raging across millenniums. Creatures and powers start coming in from the wood work, there are fractures in time itself.

Related terms

• unfighting
• unfought

 

References

• “unfight, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.