unload
Americanverb (used with object)
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unloads,
present (3rd person singular)
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unloaded,
past participle, past
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unloading
present participle
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to take the load from; remove the cargo or freight from.
to unload a truck; to unload a cart.
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to remove or discharge (a load, group of people, etc.).
to unload passengers.
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to remove the charge from (a firearm).
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to relieve of anything burdensome, oppressive, etc..
He unloaded his responsibilities.
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to get rid of (goods, shares of stock, etc.) by sale in large quantities.
verb (used without object)
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unloads,
present (3rd person singular)
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unloaded,
past participle, past
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unloading
present participle
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to unload something.
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Informal. to relieve one's stress by talking, confessing, or the like.
verb
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to remove a load or cargo from (a ship, lorry, etc)
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to discharge (cargo, freight, etc)
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(tr) to relieve of a burden or troubles
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(tr) to give vent to (anxiety, troubles, etc)
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(tr) to get rid of or dispose of (esp surplus goods)
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(tr) to remove the charge of ammunition from (a firearm)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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unloadsimple
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unloadssimple
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have unloadedperfect
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has unloadedperfect
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am unloadingprogressive
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are unloadingprogressive
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is unloadingprogressive
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have been unloadingperfect progressive
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has been unloadingperfect progressive
Past
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unloadedsimple
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had unloadedperfect
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was unloadingprogressive
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were unloadingprogressive
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had been unloadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of unload
Explanation
To unload is to remove cargo from a vehicle or shipping carton. Unload can also mean to discharge or get rid of something, or to get something off your chest. A clothing store might unload (remove) a hundred cartons from the delivery truck, and then unload (unpack) shirts and pants from the cartons. If a carton of clothes is imperfect, the store might send them back or unload (dispossess themselves of) them by selling them cheaply to a factory-seconds outlet. Then the store manager, depending on her mood, might unload on (give a tongue-lashing to) the manufacturer for shipping shoddy products.
Vocabulary lists containing unload
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:
Roebuck unlocked his workshop, and Oxford helped him unload the equipment.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
To understand people’s needs and preferences, Barnes said her team regularly follows shoppers through supermarkets and then home as they unload groceries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Is your job focused on coordination or analysis, tasks CEOs increasingly want to unload to AI?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
What initially looked like a home run became a long-term contract the team couldn’t unload.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
I want to jump topics but I know she needs to unload, so I look impressed.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
One driver watches for blind spots while the other unloads the groceries.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
He hauls buckets of feed into the back of his ATV and unloads them in a pen crowded with cattle that outweigh him many times over.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026
The crypto selloff has deepened as Wall Street unloads risk-on assets amid concerns over the stretched valuations of artificial-intelligence stocks.
From Barron's ● Nov. 14, 2025
Toward the end of her juicy new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift unloads a sparky electro-pop song called “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 19, 2024
She sets it on the table and unloads containers filled with tamales and rice and beans and chips and salsa.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
He added that California law requires people carrying handguns into and out of the store to keep them in a locked container and for handguns and long guns to be unloaded.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
During the call, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes unloaded on the agency.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2026
They must be hungry—twice they catch skunks, and a sealed house with a skunk inside, loaded or unloaded, is more than this viewer wanted to contemplate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
The listing comes one year after the actress successfully unloaded another renovated property in Montecito, Calif., for $16.8 million—although she earned a much lower profit than she had initially hoped.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
She ran across the narrow street and down into the alley where the vans unloaded goods for the covered market.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
It also met Jordan’s wish list of requirements: It has a bathtub and in-unit laundry and is on the first floor, making her loading and unloading of work supplies easier.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
A US energy exploration company has sparked an outcry by unloading drilling equipment without authorisation on the east coast of Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
A sustained defense financed the conventional way would mean Tokyo unloading them at a moment when the yield on the 30-year U.S. bond has risen to its highest level since 2007.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
“The heat doesn’t bother me much,” he said, unloading his bicycle — a blue and yellow 1989 Trek 400 — from the trunk of his car on a side street in Reseda.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Dayi Jamsheed started unloading our stuff from the back.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
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.
