Explanation
Something is unchained when it's free from restraints that confine it. Better not leave your unchained bike outside of the library — someone might steal it! Most people think it's fine to leave your dog unchained in the back yard for a while but consider it cruel when a dog is chained outdoors all day. To be chained is to be secured by a chain, and when you add the prefix un-, "not," you get the opposite. An unchained tiger cub can happily run back to its mother, and an unchained gate can freely swing open.
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.
The dog calmed down as the woman unchained it and took it into the minibus.
From BBC ● May 28, 2024
He was the rubber-limbed, unchained id of “Seinfeld,” the most popular sitcom of its era and a cultural phenomenon cultish in its fervor but too massive to really be considered a cult.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2024
It's everything Logan wanted for ATN, and all we should have expected of an unchained slime puppy who should never caught us off guard.
From Salon ● May 20, 2023
“And on the 18th of August, 2018, we unchained the patients,” said Anneiruh Braimah, the head of nursing.
From New York Times ● Apr. 11, 2022
He waited—-it seemed to him for a long time—and then the clerks began to arrive, counting-house doors were unlocked, warehouses were unchained.
From "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Hoskins Forbes
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.
