uncowl

English

Etymology

un- +‎ cowl

Verb

uncowl (third-person singular simple present uncowls, present participle uncowling, simple past and past participle uncowled)

1. (transitive) To divest or deprive of a cowl (monk's hood or hooded robe).
   • 1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Third”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 41:

     See’st thou an Isle, by Palmers, Pilgrims trod,
     Men bearded, bald, cowl’d, uncowl’d, shod, unshod,

   • 1849, L. Mariotti, chapter 11, in Italy, Past and Present‎^[1], volume 2, London: Chapman, pages 389–399:

     Can the pope, to say nothing of himself and his cardinals, do away with his four archbishops and ninety-eight bishops? Will he reduce the prodigious number of his priests, who muster as strong as one twenty-eighth of the population? Will he uncowl his monks, two thousand and twenty-three of whom swarm about the streets of Rome alone?

2. (transitive, figurative, archaic) To uncover; to unveil.
   • 1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Osorio, London: John Pearson, 1873, Act I, p. 24,^[2]

     I pray you, think us friends—uncowl your face,

     For you seem faint, and the night-breeze blows healing.

   • 1850, John Savage, “Love in the Golden Vale”, in Lays of the Fatherland‎^[3], New York: J.S. Redfield, page 91:

     While we uncowl our souls,
     Bare to the God who rolls
     Earth on its icy poles,
     Clasp me in pray’r.

3. (instransitive) To remove or pull back one's cowl.
   • 1859, Louis Alexis Chamerovzow, chapter 1, in The Chronicles of the Bastile‎^[4], New York: Stanford & Delisser, page 26:

     “Monseigneur, it is not often your capuchin uncowls; least of all when he wishes to remain unknown! […] ”

   • 1905, Charles Whistler, chapter 16, in A King’s Comrade‎^[5]:

     And thence, after a word or two had passed, came the priest I had seen; and when he uncowled I knew him for my friend Selred, and glad I was to see him.

   • 1972, John Barth, “Perseid”, in Chimera‎^[6], New York: Fawcett Crest, page 103:

     She wouldn’t uncowl, for modesty she said, but let me ground her and lift dun shift to white shoulders.

4. (transitive) To remove the cowl (protective covering) from (an engine).
   • 1980, George C. Larson, chapter 3, in Fly on Instruments‎^[7], Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 29:

     […] uncowling the airplane before each flight is neither practical nor expected. In fact, uncowling such an airplane repeatedly may wear the latching or fastening devices.

   • 1994, Geza Szurovy, Mike Goulian, chapter 20, in Basic Aerobatics‎^[8], Blue Ridge Summit, PA: TAB Books, page 217:

     Uncowl the engine, check for evidence of any leaks.