unclothe
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to strip of clothes.
-
to remove a covering from; lay bare; uncover.
verb
-
to take off garments from; strip
-
to uncover or lay bare
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
unclothesimple
-
unclothessimple
-
have uncladperfect
-
have unclothedperfect
-
has uncladperfect
-
has unclothedperfect
-
am unclothingprogressive
-
are unclothingprogressive
-
is unclothingprogressive
-
have been unclothingperfect progressive
-
has been unclothingperfect progressive
Past
-
unclothedsimple
-
had uncladperfect
-
had unclothedperfect
-
was unclothingprogressive
-
were unclothingprogressive
-
had been unclothingperfect progressive
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 Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander
Other men, again, possibly unclothe themselves of some practices, but they put on new clothing, they reform some passages for fear of censure, or shame, or such like.
From The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning by Binning, Hugh
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 Bennett, Arnold
How came so many men of such different races and nations of mankind to hasten to unclothe themselves of all their previous beliefs in order to adopt these fantastical fables?
From The Eclipse of Faith Or, A Visit To A Religious Sceptic by Rogers, Henry
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 Boettiger, Louis A.
The responsibility of light beckons, unclothes the familiar objects and not so familiar ones.
From Unmanned by Oliver, Stephen
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
But like the dangling body, they, too, were unclothed sculptures — lifeless yet eerily lifelike.
From New York Times ● Oct. 20, 2023
Avedon's picture features the young man, his torso unclothed, eyes closed, arms back, and chin raised.
From Salon ● Jan. 16, 2023
She lets the water run in the shower, turns up the thermostat to compensate for the terrible moment when she will have to step onto the mat on the bathroom floor, 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
Surely these white, unclad figures were ghosts, or gods come down from the skies!
From The Riflemen of the Ohio A Story of the Early Days along "The Beautiful River" by Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
The sacred and unfleshly calling of a bishop threw a protecting mantle over the modest shoulders of his wife and daughters; and these did not go unclad.
From King John of Jingalo The Story of a Monarch in Difficulties by Housman, Laurence
Queen Toplissy was a handsome lady, rather heavy in physique, of an orange-yellow complexion, with bright copper-bronze hair, and her unclad arms wore a profusion of bracelets and armlets of various metals.
From The Goddess of Atvatabar Being the history of the discovery of the interior world and conquest of Atvatabar by Bradshaw, William Richard
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 Newman, John Henry
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 Alford, Henry
Either the Spirit unclothing Unto new living for ever,— Or the dread penalty—never!
From My Life as an Author by Tupper, Martin Farquhar
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.
