unyoke
Americanverb (used with object)
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to free from or as if from a yoke.
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to part or disjoin, as by removing a yoke.
verb (used without object)
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to remove a yoke.
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to cease work.
verb
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to release (an animal, etc) from a yoke
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(tr) to set free; liberate
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(tr) to disconnect or separate
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archaic (intr) to cease working
Etymology
Origin of unyoke
before 1000; Middle English unyoken, Old English ungeocian. See un- 2, yoke 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.
See Examples For:
“They have smelt the water, it is not far off, sir,” said Bremen; “we had better unyoke them all, and let them go.”
From The Mission; or Scenes in Africa by Frederick Marryat
And when the dark night was coming on, Conchubar said to his people, “It is best for us to unyoke the chariots now, and to look for some place where we can spend the night.”
From The Irish Fairy Book by Various
If we do not unyoke it, the ox will die of hunger.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 06 (From Barbarossa to Dante) by Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne
They unyoke his horses, get into his shafts, drag him through the streets, toss up their caps and cry hurrah! hurrah!
From The Little Manx Nation - 1891 by Sir Hall Caine
"I'll unyoke them at the corner and get supper," she said.
From A Prairie Courtship by Harold Bindloss
In the chaotic tangle of dust, horseflesh and steel, finding an unexpected advantage was not difficult for those unyoked from scruple.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2024
More specifically, a female third party, unyoked from ego.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 29, 2022
Although the Egyptians showed no particular desire to be unyoked, the Egyptian Cabinet neither declared war against Italy nor prepared its armed forces for action.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then he unyoked the bullocks and led them to the small pool of water near which we had stopped, giving them each a handful of hay.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
Our beasts were quickly unyoked, the tent arranged, a large fire lit, supper started, and we dispersed in various directions, some to cut bamboos, and some to collect sugar-cane.
From The Swiss Family Robinson or, Adventures on a Desert Island by Jean Rudolph Wyss
This was a common adage for giving over or ceasing to do a thing; a metaphor derived from the unyoking of oxen at the end of their labor.
From Folk-lore of Shakespeare by Thomas Firminger Thiselton-Dyer
The man, a gaunt and grizzled creature, with long hair and ragged beard, was unyoking his oxen, while the woman bent over the fire which crackled beneath her hands.
From The Emigrant Trail by Geraldine Bonner
The Professor, himself, drove the team to the Cataract, and after unyoking them, followed the course of the river down to its mouth, to await the coming of the boys.
From The Wonder Island Boys: Exploring the Island by Roger Thompson Finlay
It was the hour of the unyoking of men.
From The Nether World by George Gissing
Harriet was ten, I was not quite nine, and Lars was only twelve, hence we spent long hours in yoking and unyoking our unruly span.
From A Son of the Middle Border by Hamlin Garland
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.
