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
Van Gogh had unchained it from its age-old funereal associations and reinvented it as a tour de force of emotional connection and nurturance.
From New York Times ● May 11, 2023
What if he pulled on the door, and it simply fell off its hinges, revealing Kaz Brekker, unhooded and unchained?
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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.
