unknit

American  

[uhn-nit] / ʌnˈnɪt /

verb (used with object)

unknitted, unknit, unknitting

1. to untie or unfasten (a knot, tangle, etc.); unravel (something knitted); undo.

2. to weaken, undo, or destroy.

3. to smooth out (something wrinkled).

---

verb (used without object)

unknitted, unknit, unknitting

1. to become undone.

unknit British  

/ ʌnˈnɪt /

verb

1. to make or become undone, untied, or unravelled

2. (tr) to loosen, weaken, or destroy

   to unknit an alliance

3. rare (tr) to smooth out (a wrinkled brow)

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unknittable
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of unknit

before 1000; Middle English unknytten, Old English uncnyttan. See un- ², knit

Example Sentences

In the scorbutic body, as connective tissue fails, long-healed broken bones unknit themselves, and legs cramp so severely that the person cannot walk.

From Slate • Dec. 8, 2016

And now he unknit his black brows; looked down, smiling at me, and stroked my hair, as if well pleased at seeing a danger averted.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

I would he had continu'd to his country As he began, and not unknit himself The noble knot he made.

From Coriolanus by Shakespeare, William

Disjointed numbers; sense unknit Huge reams of folly, shreds of wit; Compose the mingled mass of it.

From The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 by Lamb, Charles

A bone, a muscle, a tendon, a sinew, may be ill-nourished, undeveloped, green, and unknit, but, at the worst, they are inside of a man and they are his own. 

From Bunyan Characters (2nd Series) by Whyte, Alexander