unmoor

[uhn-moor]

verb (used with object)

1. to loose (a vessel) from moorings or anchorage.

2. to bring to the state of riding with a single anchor after being moored by two or more.

verb (used without object)

1. (of a vessel) to become unmoored.

unmoor

/ -ˈmɔː, ʌnˈmʊə /

verb

1. to weigh the anchor or drop the mooring of (a vessel)

2. (tr) to reduce the mooring of (a vessel) to one anchor

Word History and Origins

Origin of unmoor¹

First recorded in 1490–1500, unmoor is from the Middle English word unmooren. See un- ², moor ²

Example Sentences

During the pandemic, their previous space, TV Bar in Berlin, was shuttered, leaving them suddenly unmoored.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

If that trend continues, therapy will cede its purpose to algorithms and leave patients unmoored from reality.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

He was among two dozen longtime DSA members who signed a November 2023 open letter in the New Republic announcing their departure because the organization had “become completely unmoored.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It’s a decision that was partly spiritual: when the world feels unmoored, it seemed perhaps worth remembering that our predecessors relied on the seasons as enveloping promises of change.

Read more on Salon

It was March 2020, and she and her husband had been trying for a second child, but suffered a miscarriage that had unmoored them.

Read more on Salon