unsend

American  

[uhn-send] / ʌnˈsɛnd /

verb (used with object)

unsent, unsending

1. to delete (a digital message such as an email or text) from the devices of the sender and receiver.

   The IT team added a way to unsend recently sent messages. She unsent the email just in time to prevent it being read.

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Etymology

Origin of unsend

First recorded in 1985–90; un- ² ( def. ) + send ¹ ( def. )

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

unsend unsending unsent

Apple last year revealed the ability to edit and unsend iMessages between iPhones in a system upgrade.

From Seattle Times ● May 23, 2023

“You can’t unsend a piece of mail — the damage from this misinformation already reached voters,” Tattersfield said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2023

The unsend feature, meanwhile, only works iMessage to iMessage; there’s no retrieving that text you sent an Android friend.

From The Verge ● Sep. 12, 2022

And now, with the forthcoming iOS 16 update, iPhone users will be able to edit and even unsend their texts.

From Slate ● Jun. 8, 2022

Because even if I can’t unsend the drawings, I can at least pretend like I didn’t send them in the first place.

From "Starfish" by Akemi Dawn Bowman

Editing and unsending messages is great, as long as you can remember to long-press.

From The Verge ● Sep. 12, 2022

But unsending and editing have more nefarious uses.

From The Verge ● Jul. 14, 2022

Apple did warn me that unsending might not work on older versions but not that my attempted edit would look so clumsy.

From The Verge ● Jul. 14, 2022

Right now, editing and unsending are only available to the vanishingly small percentage of Apple users enrolled in the public betas.

From The Verge ● Jul. 14, 2022

With several months to go before the new operating systems officially roll out, there may still be time for Apple to make editing and unsending opt-in features, like Dodge suggests.

From The Verge ● Jul. 14, 2022

A new collection of Eve Babitz’s largely unsent correspondence, “Too L.A.,” resurrects the cult writer’s singular voice — and revelry.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

In a final, unsent letter, addressed to Maximilien Robespierre, she wrote, “speak; it is something to know one’s fate, and with a soul like mine, one is capable of envisaging it.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026

A text message recovered from the phone’s draft messages folder read “Call 911” but was unsent.

From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2024

If that doesn't happen, letters end up in a consultant's document folder and remain unsent until they are signed off correctly.

From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2023

Or perhaps he was languishing in one of the black cells beneath the Red Keep, her letter still unsent.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

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