unbind
Americanverb (used with object)
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unbinds,
present (3rd person singular)
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unbound,
past participle, past
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unbinding
present participle
-
to release from bonds or restraint, as a prisoner; free.
-
to unfasten or loose, as a bond or tie.
verb
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to set free from restraining bonds or chains; release
-
to unfasten or make loose (a bond, tie, etc)
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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unbindsimple
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unbindssimple
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have unboundperfect
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has unboundperfect
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am unbindingprogressive
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are unbindingprogressive
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is unbindingprogressive
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have been unbindingperfect progressive
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has been unbindingperfect progressive
Past
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unboundsimple
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had unboundperfect
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was unbindingprogressive
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were unbindingprogressive
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had been unbindingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of unbind
before 950; Middle English unbinden, Old English unbindan; cognate with German entbinden. See un- 2, bind
Explanation
To unbind is to release someone or something that's tied up. In a fantasy novel, the heroine might unbind the prisoners of the evil ogre and rescue them from his terrifying lair. The verb bind means to secure or fasten something using rope or another kind of restraint. Unbind is the opposite (you can tell from the "reverse" prefix un-). The famous magician and escape artist Harry Houdini managed to unbind himself in many unlikely situations — underwater, in a straitjacket, and buried in the ground, among others.
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 goal is to “create a situation where no one can unbind their ties,” said Narushige Michishita, a professor of international relations at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2024
Once released, the acetylcholine stays in the cleft and can continually bind and unbind to postsynaptic receptors.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
At higher temperatures, these vortices unbind and move away from each other, and are eventually destroyed by the system’s entropy.
From Nature ● May 1, 2019
He spent hours huddling with Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Kendra Unruh, a Colorado delegate who drove the effort to unbind delegates and thwart Mr. Trump.
From Washington Times ● Jul. 14, 2016
Abashed at my appearance, I quickly unbind my skirts so they fold about my legs, hiding my muddy feet.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
The group wants delegates to return to the floor once their state reaches the round of balloting that formally unbinds them to do whatever they want.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 13, 2016
Meyer unbinds the captive, and the huge fish and I are floating free in the crystalline blue water.
From Time Magazine Archive
DISSIMULATION, standing behind FRAUD, unbinds him, and while all the rest behold SIMPLICITY, they two slip away; PLEASURE, missing FRAUD, saith— PLEASURE.
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 6 by William Carew Hazlitt
Boon winter bids them, and unbinds their cares, As laden keels, when now the port they touch, And happy sailors crown the sterns with flowers.
From The Georgics by Virgil
And he unbinds it from his side, scabbard and all, and holds it while the urchin gets astride o't and pretends to ride.
From A Brother To Dragons and Other Old-time Tales by Amélie Rives
"If the orbital speed of the binaries is less than the kick speed, the wide binaries will become gravitationally unbound," Fuller explains.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
Clemency is a plea, unbound by the structure and procedural limitations of the law.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2026
His scores, with their inherent rigor and overt religiosity, seemingly simple structure and patient exposition, conjure a world both foundational and unbound.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2025
“The Brutalist” is a film, in part, about the perils of unbound creativity, but Corbet manages to prove his own film wrong by assembling the most monumental achievement of any of the five nominees.
From Salon ● Feb. 28, 2025
The suitcases are unlocked and unbound and all the gifts are unearthed, admired, tried on for size.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
"It was different than the usual encounters I have with my Palestinian artist friends; there was this unbinding connection, because we don't know if we're going to see each other" again, he said.
From Barron's ● Feb. 21, 2026
As part of their bids, the companies had also submitted unbinding offers to build three more nuclear reactors.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2024
“Vanessa has this unbinding, positive outlook on life,” Mr. Gynd said.
From New York Times ● Mar. 9, 2019
The economies of the two nations are deeply enmeshed at this point, and unbinding them will be painful—especially for industries like agriculture, for which trade with China has been a boon.
From Slate ● Apr. 4, 2018
The controlled binding and unbinding of iron and oxygen—the cyclical rusting and unrusting of blood—allows effective oxygen delivery into tissues.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
