unwind

English

Etymology

From Old English unwindan. See 1st un-, and wind (“to coil”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʌnˈwaɪnd/

  Rhymes: -aɪnd

Verb

unwind (third-person singular simple present unwinds, present participle unwinding, simple past and past participle unwound)

1. (transitive) To wind off; to loose or separate; to untwist; to untwine; as, to unwind thread, to unwind a ball of yarn

   Could you unwind about a foot of ribbon so I can finish the package?

2. (transitive, obsolete) To disentangle
   • 1836, Richard Hooker, The Works of Richard Hooker, Volume 4, page 27:

     ... but being not so skilful as in every point to unwind themselves where the snares of glossing speech do lie to entangle them, ...

3. (intransitive, slang) To relax; to chill out; as, to rest and relieve of stress

   After work, I like to unwind by smoking a pipe while reading the paper.

4. (intransitive) To be or become unwound; to be capable of being unwound or untwisted.

Related terms

• wind

Translations

To wind off

• Finnish: purkaa (fi)
• French: dérouler (fr), débobiner (fr)
• German: abwickeln, loswickeln, abspulen (de), abdocken (de) (textil.)

• Hungarian: legombolyít (hu)
• Romanian: deșira (ro)
• Spanish: desenrollar (es)

To disentangle

• Finnish: avata (fi)
• French: démêler (fr)

• Turkish: çözmek (tr)

To relax

• Finnish: rentoutua (fi)
• French: décompresser (fr)
• German: abschalten (de) (figurative), sich entspannen (de)
• Hungarian: ellazul (hu)

• Spanish: relajarse (es)
• Turkish: gevşemek (tr), rahatlamak (tr)

To be or become unwound

• Finnish: purkautua (fi)
• French: se défaire (fr)

• German: sich abwickeln (de)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: afwikkelen