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unpen

American  
[uhn-pen] / ʌnˈpɛn /

verb (used with object)

unpenned, unpenning

  1. to release from confinement.

Etymology

Origin of unpen

First recorded in 1585–95; un- 2 + pen 2

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.

Yet, wherefore, then "Rise, and go up to Bethlehem," and unpen To wolf and jackal all their hapless fold So they might "see these things which had been told In heaven's own voice"?

From In The Yule-Log Glow—Book 3 Christmas Poems from 'round the World by Morris, Harrison S. (Harrison Smith)

There are who lord it o’er their fellow-men With most prevailing tinsel; who unpen Their baaing vanities to browse away The comfortable green and juicy hay From human pastures; or, oh torturing fact!

From Life of John Keats by Rossetti, William Michael

There are who lord it o'er their fellow-men With most prevailing tinsel: who unpen Their baaing vanities, to browse away The comfortable green and juicy hay From human pastures; or, O torturing fact!

From Endymion A Poetic Romance by Keats, John

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.