uncoil
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
uncoilsimple
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uncoilssimple
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have uncoiledperfect
-
has uncoiledperfect
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am uncoilingprogressive
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are uncoilingprogressive
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is uncoilingprogressive
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have been uncoilingperfect progressive
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has been uncoilingperfect progressive
Past
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uncoiledsimple
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had uncoiledperfect
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was uncoilingprogressive
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were uncoilingprogressive
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had been uncoilingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of uncoil
Explanation
To uncoil is to straighten something out that's been curled or twisted, the way you uncoil a long, thin piece of red licorice, chewing it as you go. When something is coiled, it's wound or curled into a spiral shape. You can even call it a coil, like a coil of rope on the deck of a sailboat. Make it straight by untwisting it, and you uncoil it: "Leave my snake alone! Don't try to uncoil her!" The prefix un- means "reverse or opposite of," and coil, "gather into rings," comes from a root meaning "to gather or collect."
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:
There is fundamental pent-up demand for home improvement that should uncoil as housing turnover improves.
From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026
Slamming her feet down on the springboard, Biles compresses the springs that then uncoil and transfer energy back into her body as she reaches up and backward for the vault table.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2024
Had I said, "I love you"? I will never be able to uncoil that memory from my brain.
From Salon ● May 2, 2023
The story — and the horror — uncoil in distinctly feminine spaces, to the music of “spoons striking against frail cups” and the high, pealing sound of a woman laughing.
From New York Times ● Jan. 9, 2018
In the baffled silence I began to uncoil slowly.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
Most impressively, Lopez grabs a martini, slowly does a one-legged spin to the ground and then uncoils herself to stand back up and cheer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2025
When the material is pulled, hidden length inside the polymer uncoils, allowing it to elongate up to 40 times more than standard polymers without weakening.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 27, 2024
But Mills can tell when Junie is over it herself: Her tongue uncoils further out the crook of her mouth, dashes turn into trots, trots turn into steps, steps turn to sit.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 24, 2022
A final curl of smoke uncoils in the wind.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2022
Lala uncoils something from her hip and looks at her crew.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
On the drive out that afternoon, between fields of corn and sunflowers, miles of newly uncoiled barbed wire glint in the sunlight.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2025
She spoke with the force of a spring uncoiled and the determination of a balled-up fist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2024
Officers from Customs and Border Protection uncoiled razor wire across the railway gate.
From Reuters ● Aug. 8, 2023
Gone is the idea of a totemic strand of DNA that extends six feet when uncoiled and stretched out in a straight line.
From New York Times ● May 10, 2023
The black snake silently uncoiled itself and slithered alongside.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
He published photographs of security officers uncoiling barbed wire next to a wall that appeared more than two metres high.
From Reuters ● Nov. 11, 2022
It’s followed by an uncoiling down the mound with the left hand holding the baseball last in the movement.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 17, 2022
Media vita’s slowly uncoiling intensity got me through at first.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 21, 2020
On a winter afternoon, she and several classmates were uncoiling in the Rock Room, making friendship bracelets and sketching in fat coloring books.
From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2017
The only things that moved were the flames and the snake, coiling and uncoiling in the glittering cage behind Voldemort’s head.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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.
