uncurl
Americanverb (used with or without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
uncurlsimple
-
uncurlssimple
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have uncurledperfect
-
has uncurledperfect
-
am uncurlingprogressive
-
are uncurlingprogressive
-
is uncurlingprogressive
-
have been uncurlingperfect progressive
-
has been uncurlingperfect progressive
Past
-
uncurledsimple
-
had uncurledperfect
-
was uncurlingprogressive
-
were uncurlingprogressive
-
had been uncurlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of uncurl
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:
Dole eventually learned that he could grip a pen in his right fingers, a technique he used to mask the fact that he couldn’t uncurl them.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 4, 2021
“It was amazing sitting on that bus and watching America uncurl before you.”
From The Guardian ● Nov. 11, 2019
Salgado’s hands began to uncurl and I brought markers and scrapbooks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2019
Gradually - and very, very cautiously - one of those balls begins to uncurl, revealing two blackcurrant eyes, a long snout, an even longer tail and a soft pink belly.
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2015
And it began hurriedly to sing in a very placating way, but rather muffled because it dared not uncurl.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
The worker uncurls its claw-like fingers, daintily grips the basket by its edges and walks it over to a conveyor that will send it through an industrial washing machine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 2026
When he makes a fist, then uncurls his fingers, Athena does the same.
From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2021
In a rescue center, the pangolin slowly wakes and uncurls, sniffing out a nighttime feast of ants’ eggs, then lapping it up with its implausibly long tongue.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 20, 2018
His brush uncurls a reptilian ripple of paint that twines and insinuates itself into a snakepit of color.
From Time Magazine Archive
He uncurls the tangled mystery of this maze.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
In a split second, Chauhan uncurled his fingers and accepted it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2020
On the side of a one-storey church, which was white and wooden and peaked with a small belfry, I uncurled a green hose and drank a long time.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 19, 2019
Compared to other farmers in his area, he said, his corn remains uncurled for longer.
From Salon ● May 10, 2019
In New York, massive banners were uncurled from atop the entrance to the Holland Tunnel declaring “Black Lives Matter” and “Fund Black Futures.”
From Washington Post ● Jul. 22, 2016
The golden snake uncurled and dropped from her arm.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
Mine involves eye contact, a short smile, a slow uncurling of the fingers, a small raise of the wrist, and a four- to five-second hold.
From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2020
By curling and uncurling their toes, geckos can alternate between sticking and unsticking from a surface, and thus easily move across it.
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
Hundreds of police officers clumped on the corners, glancing up at the smoke uncurling in the sky.
From New York Times ● Sep. 19, 2016
Both of us were upon her, coaxing her hands way from her face, uncurling her to reveal wet cheeks.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 14, 2014
As it was, she could feel her curls unceremoniously uncurling; she forced herself to converse, that she might not see herself in a small, strange room, ever shrinking with shame, far away from everyone else.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
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.
