unlay
Americanverb (used with object)
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to separate (a strand) from a rope.
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to untwist (a rope) in order to separate its strands.
verb
Etymology
Origin of unlay
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're not suddenly going to press the rewind button and totally unlay you off.
From Time Magazine Archive
The owners of a vessel buy up incredible quantities of "old junk," which the sailors unlay, after drawing out the yarns, knot them together, and roll them up in balls.
From Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana
To form this knot unlay the strands of a new, flexible rope for six to eight inches and whip the ends of each strand, as well as the standing part, to prevent further untwisting.
From Knots, Splices and Rope Work A Practical Treatise by A. Hyatt (Alpheus Hyatt) Verrill
"Now unlay the strands so," he would say.
From The Mutineers by Charles Boardman Hawes
I’ve on’y got to unlay this piece o’ rope—it’s nearly new—and then I can twist up yards o’ line.”
From Nic Revel A White Slave's Adventures in Alligator Land by William H. C. Groome
Kerry Perkins, an aquarist at the Sea Life aquarium in Brighton, said a four-year fast was a possibility, but noted that the octopus may have got nutrients from unlaid eggs or very occasional, unobserved titbits.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2014
Returning later and finding the wire unlaid, Templer picked up the telephone and called the Public Works Department.
From Time Magazine Archive
An X-ray device has been developed which tells genuine from imitation leather, and which reveals the minutest internal details of insects, down to embryonic skeletons in unlaid eggs.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hertz, made of weaker stuff than Hoff, tries to persuade him to do as he himself has done: to compromise, to live with unlaid ghosts.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some gigantic landslide must have sliced the mountain off into the gorge below, and instead of a path we had been following its still unlaid phantom.
From Noto: an Unexplained Corner of Japan by Percival Lowell
She sealed that letter and she moved about the room unlaying and as she unlaid, destroying, all evidences, all treasures, all landmarks, all that in any way referred to or touched upon her working life.
From This Freedom by A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth) Hutchinson
But then he took a three-strand hawser and laid this over the tobacco, so that when the hawser was finished no one could suspect the tobacco without first cutting or unlaying the rope.
From King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855 by E. Keble (Edward Keble) Chatterton
In unlaying for a long splice, always unlay two strands simultaneously, to keep the rope in its original lay.
From Knots, Bends, Splices With tables of strengths of ropes, etc. and wire rigging by J. Netherclift Jutsum
He hung for a moment over the side, twisted himself back in a strong effort to regain his balance, and incautiously planted his foot inside the unlaying coil.
From Jim Spurling, Fisherman or Making Good by Albert Walter Tolman
He held out the wet end of the rope, showing how it was neatly bound with copper-wire to keep it from fraying out and unlaying.
From Sappers and Miners The Flood beneath the Sea by Hal Hurst
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