unstick
Americanverb (used with object)
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unsticks,
present (3rd person singular)
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unstuck,
past participle, past
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unsticking
present participle
verb (used without object)
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unsticks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
unstuck,
past participle, past
-
unsticking
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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unsticksimple
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unstickssimple
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have unstuckperfect
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has unstuckperfect
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am unstickingprogressive
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are unstickingprogressive
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is unstickingprogressive
-
have been unstickingperfect progressive
-
has been unstickingperfect progressive
Past
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unstucksimple
-
had unstuckperfect
-
was unstickingprogressive
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were unstickingprogressive
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had been unstickingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of unstick
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The agreement could help unstick energy flows through Hormuz and ease pressure on the global economy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
As Millie and Tim fall into a well-worn pattern, their literal inability to unstick themselves from something increasingly toxic becomes both hysterical and uniquely depraved.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2025
"We - our team and the United States administration - came to Beijing in order to unstick what has been stuck since almost last August," Kerry told reporters late on Wednesday.
From Reuters ● Jul. 19, 2023
Roy runs into Phoebe’s teacher — yay, Phoebe, genuinely and always — and she says he seemed “stuck” the last time they spoke, which evidently serves to immediately unstick him.
From New York Times ● May 17, 2023
“It’s a new one. Maneuver #73: unstick our army.”
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
He unsticks the phone from his ear and stretches it out to me.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
Good luck with this bureaucracy of becoming unstuck.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 12, 2026
The Ifab and Fifa have introduced so many law changes for this World Cup, perhaps it should come as no surprise referees have come unstuck.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
But many family-run businesses come unstuck because they focus on short-term moneymaking, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
Over the last couple of years, the long-term political parallels between the U.S. and the United Kingdom seem to have come unstuck.
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2026
Is there any other way to get unstuck?
From "Mockingbird" by Kathryn Erskine
By curling and uncurling their toes, geckos can alternate between sticking and unsticking from a surface, and thus easily move across it.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
As we look toward unsticking calcified systems, we may find hope from a practice rarely celebrated by technological innovators: regulation.
From Slate ● Jan. 8, 2015
But unsticking systems is not just a technological challenge.
From Slate ● Jan. 8, 2015
Thankfully, there are ways to manage this; unsticking that clog and getting everything flowing freely again.
From Forbes ● Sep. 6, 2014
Hastily straightening his glasses and unsticking his cheek from the glass, he pressed his nose against the window instead and squinted down at the pavement.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
