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Showing results for unhand. Search instead for unhang.

unhand

American  
[uhn-hand] / ʌnˈhænd /

verb (used with object)

  • unhands,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • unhanded,
    past participle,  past
  • unhanding
    present participle
  1. to take the hand or hands from; release from a grasp; let go.

    Unhand me, you wretched coward!


unhand British  
/ ʌnˈhænd /

verb

  1. archaic (tr) to release from the grasp

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future


Etymology

Origin of unhand

First recorded in 1595–1605; un- 2 + hand


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:

They stage a melodrama in the lobby in which the business of "unhand that woman" and "the viper beats my mother" is used with proper gusto.

From Time Magazine Archive

“Dog, unhand our royal charger. We are the Empress Jadis.”

From "The Magician's Nephew" by C. S. Lewis

I pray you, unhand me, and I will go mine own self to the constable, and entreat him to take me, as his office and duty are.”

From All's Well Alice's Victory by M. Lewin

He handed to the prisoner, as he spoke, the writing materials, which had been seized upon by the archers on their first entrance, and then commanded those satellites to unhand the minstrel.

From Waverley Novels — Volume 12 by Sir Walter Scott

"Unhand me," she said, alarmed; "unhand me at once, or I'll scream."

From The Pobratim A Slav Novel by P. Jones

Theo immediately unhands me, putting his palms in the air to show he has no intention of touching me again and looking worried and baffled at once.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

When the habit of books becomes the habit of a man he unhands himself at will from space and time; he finds the universe is his universe.

From The Lost Art of Reading by Gerald Stanley Lee

Gower unhands her, and, lifting one side of his would-be blind, regards her fixedly.

From The Hoyden by Duchess

The program's sponsor, Charles Revson, president of Revlon Products Corp., had more than the occasion to be choked up about as he unhanded the Big Check.

From Time Magazine Archive

Conversely, humanities lag at Rochester, and Board Chairman Wilson has personally unhanded $1,000,000 for improvement.

From Time Magazine Archive

Said I not that the gods, as well as mankind, had unhanded themselves from this Pierre?

From Pierre; or The Ambiguities by Herman Melville

Thereafter the manager appeared to realize the futility of resistance, and was unhanded on his undertaking to sit quiet, which he did with the exception of one speech to those behind.

From Stingaree by E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung

She never wants to be "unhanded" or "let to pass."

From Stage-Land by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

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