uncurl
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Verb
[edit]uncurl (third-person singular simple present uncurls, present participle uncurling, simple past and past participle uncurled)
- (transitive, intransitive) To straighten out from being curled up.
- The hedgehog uncurled when its predators had left.
- 1687, John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther:
- But when his foe lyes prostrate on the plain,
He sheaths his paws, uncurls his angry mane;
And, pleas'd with bloudless honours of the day,
Walks over, and disdains th' inglorious Prey.
- 1902, Rudyard Kipling, “The Elephant's Child”, in Just So Stories:
- Then he uncurled his trunk and knocked two of his dear brothers head over heels.