unroof

English

Etymology

un- +‎ roof

Verb

unroof (third-person singular simple present unroofs, present participle unroofing, simple past and past participle unroofed)

1. To remove a roof from, e.g. a building.
   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     The rabble should have first unroof'd the city, / Ere so prevail'd with me:

   • 1787, Robert Burns, Written by Somebody on the Window of an Inn at Stirling‎^[1], 1-4:

     Here Stuarts once in glory reigned, / And laws for Scotland's weal ordained; / But now unroof'd their palace stands, / Their sceptre's sway'd by other hands;

   • 1960, Ted Hughes, “Nicholas Ferrer”, in Lupercal, Faber & Faber, page 25:

     […] Rain-logged, wind-unroofed, / The manor farm hulked its last use / As landmark. […]

   • 2006, Swithin Wilmot, “'We not slave again': Enslaved Jamaicans in Early Freedom, 1838-1865”, in Marc Kleijwegt, editor, The Faces of Freedom: The Manumission and Emancipation of Slaves in Old World and New World Slavery, Brill, page 222:

     When the workers rejected these terms, some planters threatened to evict them, and others unroofed cottages and turned estate cattle through the workers’ provision grounds.

Translations

to remove a roof

• Portuguese: destelhar (pt)