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
Proceed as in rope splicing, and after the three pairs of strands are in their places, single them, and continue to unlay and lay-in until the six meeting places of the strands are equi-distant.
From Knots, Bends, Splices With tables of strengths of ropes, etc. and wire rigging by Jutsum, J. Netherclift
For some time our main-mast stood without larboard shrouds, till we could unlay our best cable to make more, having knotted and spliced the old shrouds till our labour was in vain.
To make you a Flemish eye," Captain Falk continued in cold sarcasm, "you unlay the end of the rope and open up the yarns.
From The Mutineers by Hawes, Charles Boardman
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 Dana, Richard Henry
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
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
Returning later and finding the wire unlaid, Templer picked up the telephone and called the Public Works Department.
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
Note the cunning of the law: The useful hen and her unlaid eggs could be sacrificed while the unproductive rooster was allowed to thrive to no purpose, immune from the butcher’s block.
From Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome by Vehling, Joseph Dommers
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 Hutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
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 Chatterton, E. Keble (Edward Keble)
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 Tolman, Albert Walter
An Eye Splice is formed by unlaying the end of a rope for a short distance, and then, after closing up the end, to form an eye of the desired size.
From Knots, Bends, Splices With tables of strengths of ropes, etc. and wire rigging by Jutsum, J. Netherclift
Boston found a sounding-rod in the locker, which he scraped bright with his knife, then, unlaying a strand of the rope for a line, sounded the pump-well.
From Great Sea Stories by French, Joseph Lewis
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.
