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Synonyms

unclothe

American  
[uhn-klohth] / ʌnˈkloʊð /

verb (used with object)

  • unclothes,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • unclothed,
    past participle,  past
  • unclad,
    past participle
  • unclothing
    present participle
  1. to strip of clothes.

  2. to remove a covering from; lay bare; uncover.


unclothe British  
/ ʌnˈkləʊð /

verb

  1. to take off garments from; strip

  2. to uncover or lay bare

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future


Etymology

Origin of unclothe

First recorded in 1250–1300, unclothe is from the Middle English word unclothen. See un- 2, clothe


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:

With some actors, words clothe feelings; with Jones, feelings unclothe words so that joy, rage, wonder and sadness radiate nakedly through the theater.

From Time Magazine Archive

We uncover, indeed we unclothe an ugly, pot-bellied, pale-orange larva.

From The Glow-Worm and Other Beetles by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

Ministering angels are dimly seen in the background, and are summoned to unclothe and clothe Joshua.

From Expositions of Holy Scripture Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Minor Prophets. St Matthew Chapters I to VIII by Alexander Maclaren

This with him was to unclothe himself of his true strength.

From Robert Burns by John Campbell Shairp

She regarded herself with detachment as a remarkable phenomenon, and therefore she could impersonally describe her career without any of the ordinary restraints—just as a shopman might clothe or unclothe a model in his window.

From Mr. Prohack by Arnold Bennett

In the course of the ceremony the priest unclothes the babe and asks the godfather, “What seeks the child?”

From Armenian Legends and Festivals by Louis A. Boettiger

The responsibility of light beckons, unclothes the familiar objects and not so familiar ones.

From Unmanned by Stephen Oliver

It is clothed and unclothed; decorated and distorted; idealized, stylized, politicized.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026

Vanos said the commonly-used wet-bulb temperature for human survivability assumes the person is indoors or shaded, unclothed, completely sedentary, fully heat acclimatized and of an "average size."

From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2023

Avedon's picture features the young man, his torso unclothed, eyes closed, arms back, and chin raised.

From Salon ● Jan. 16, 2023

Raggio said that Ada Clinton Freer was found unclothed and that the Sheriff’s Office had been called out there previously to conduct welfare checks before his death.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2022

Below the sheet, Gogol realizes, his father is unclothed.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

As for Britain, clad or unclad, entry into the Common Market was out of the question, despite his "exceptional esteem, attachment and respect" for the British people.

From Time Magazine Archive

I flung the warm shawl over her, and drew the edges tight round her neck, for I dreaded lest she should get some deadly chill from the night air, unclad as she was.

From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker

You've torn my plaidie, and I am half unclad.

From Theocritus, translated into English Verse by Theocritus

"The lady of my dreams doth hold Such royal state within my mind, No thought that comes unclad in gold To that high court may entrance find."

From The Two Twilights by Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers

It was as if my soul were suddenly unclad, and left to writhe naked in a sunless atmosphere; still I am glad to say I was grateful to Santonio.

From Charles Auchester, Volume 1 of 2 by Elizabeth Sheppard

Either the Spirit unclothing Unto new living for ever,— Or the dread penalty—never!

From My Life as an Author by Martin Farquhar Tupper

Why am I to begin with taking up a position not my own, and unclothing my mind of that large outfit of existing thoughts, principles, likings, desires, and hopes, which make me what I am?

From An Essay In Aid Of A Grammar Of Assent by John Henry Newman

He looked at such unclothing in his own case as possible, but was confident that it would not happen so.

From The State of the Blessed Dead by Henry Alford

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