unknit

American  

[uhn-nit] / ʌnˈnɪt /

verb (used with object)

unknitted, unknit, unknitting

1. to untie or unfasten (a knot, tangle, etc.); unravel (something knitted); undo.

2. to weaken, undo, or destroy.

3. to smooth out (something wrinkled).

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verb (used without object)

unknitted, unknit, unknitting

1. to become undone.

unknit British  

/ ʌnˈnɪt /

verb

1. to make or become undone, untied, or unravelled

2. (tr) to loosen, weaken, or destroy

   to unknit an alliance

3. rare (tr) to smooth out (a wrinkled brow)

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Other Word Forms

• unknittable adjective

Etymology

Origin of unknit

before 1000; Middle English unknytten, Old English uncnyttan. See un- ², knit

Example Sentences

Larger dishes are simple, gratifying arrangements of meat, be it lamb chops, dark and thrilling, with the tips of their bones nearly charred through; knobs of ground beef, burnished chicken thigh or lamb torn off the shank, the flesh still harboring an instinct to resist; or lamb korma, the lamb left to unknit itself in a pot of yogurt, tomatoes and onions kept seething until they weep sugar.

From New York Times

In the scorbutic body, as connective tissue fails, long-healed broken bones unknit themselves, and legs cramp so severely that the person cannot walk.

From Slate

Will they both, unknit from their sides, be carried away to Limbo by some blast of strange doctrine?

From Project Gutenberg

If France and England fail of this, if again petty jealousies or selfish interests prevail to unknit their hands from the armored grasp, then, indeed, their faithful children will have fallen in vain; there will be a sound as of renewed lamentation along those Euxine waves, and a shaking among the bones that bleach by the mounds of Sebastopol.

From Project Gutenberg

Unknit, un-nit′, v.t. to separate or loose what is knit or knotted: to open.

From Project Gutenberg