untwine

American

[uhn-twahyn] / ʌnˈtwaɪn /

verb (used with or without object)

untwined, untwining

to bring or come out of a twined condition.

Other Word Forms

untwineable adjective

Etymology

Origin of untwine

1300–50; Middle English untwinen; un- ², twine ¹

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.

“To untwine it to one aspect of it diminishes the other, and I don’t want to do that. It’s the totality of it. It’s the gestalt of it.”

From Washington Post • Aug. 1, 2022

It would be difficult to untwine the system by which we measured much of the past 80 years — but that isn’t really New Zealand’s goal.

From Washington Post • Jun. 14, 2019

They are two events in his life he will never be able to untwine.

From BBC • Nov. 20, 2013

She later said the police had to untwine him before he could be taken to the ambulance.

From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

And let the stinking elder, grief, untwine His perishing root with the increasing vine!”

From Folk-lore of Shakespeare by Thiselton-Dyer, Thomas Firminger

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023