uncapture

/ʌnˈkæpt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

uncapture verb: to perform the reverse of a capture, especially in chess variants such as Retrochess.

Verb

uncapture (third-person singular simple present uncaptures, present participle uncapturing, simple past and past participle uncaptured)

(rare) To perform the reverse of a capture, especially in chess variants such as Retrochess.
- Finally, uncapture WhP on h file. So in the diagram position Black's last move cannot be (a) P(g3) x P(f2) as white pawn must retract to g2 first; or (b) P(b6)xc5, as WhP has been captured on h file to allow promotion of BhP without a capture,[…]1967, The British Chess Magazine, volumes 86-87, Trubner & Company, page 28
- Unmoving pieces cannot capture, but they can uncapture, leaving a piece in their wake. This is simulated via interhyperboard communication. The uncapture operation can be computed by using outer products, corresponding to the parallel broadcast, or spread broadcast.1998 November 13, Lewis Stiller, “Multilinear Algebra and Chess Endgames”, in Richard J. Nowakowski, editor, Games of No Chance, Cambridge University Press, page 173

uncapture (plural uncaptures)

(rare) The act of uncapturing.
- The reports of the medical officers state that of 773 convicts who had arrived up to the 16th June, 1858, there had occurred 64 deaths In hospitals ; that 140 had escaped uncapture⁴, or had committed suicide; and 87 had been executed; leaving 481 only of the number.1862, George Bradshaw, Bradshaw's through routes, overland guide, and handbook to India, Egypt, Turkey, Persia, China, Australia, and New Zealand., W.J. Adams, page 322
- No. 109—Pe2—e3 let Bf1 out for capture, Pe7 came from f6, so we have 1 8f2—h1, Ph7xQg6, with play Kh4, Pg3; or 1 Bf2—g1, Ph7xRg6, with Be2, Pg4; or 1 8f7—h8, Ph7xBg6, with Kg4, Rxs4; or 1 Qc8—b8, Ph7x8g6, with Pe5, Qf5, a fourfold uncapture that astonished me when I brought it off.1935, Thomas Rayner Dawson, Charles Masson Fox, Five classics of fairy chess, Dover Publications, page 17

In April when asking him to uncapture a tax return he said: 'You don't want to do that again because next time it would be a smacked bottom'.2004, Equal Opportunities Review, numbers 125-136, Industrial Relations Services, page 28:
After an uncapture by White, Nd5xNe3, and an uncapture by Black, Nf3xNe3, the position is: White Ka1, Na3, d5, e3; Black Ke5, Ne6, e4, f$[…]1996, David Hooper, Kenneth Whyld, Oxford Companion to Chess, Oxford University Press, page 338:

Verb
third-person singular present	uncaptures
present participle	uncapturing
past participle	uncaptured
past	uncaptured
Noun
plural	uncaptures

A back-formation from uncaptured; equivalent to un- + capture.

What does uncapture mean?: Uncapture means to perform the reverse of a capture, especially in chess variants such as Retrochess.
How do you use uncapture in a sentence?: In April when asking him to uncapture a tax return he said: 'You don't want to do that again because next time it would be a smacked bottom'.
What part of speech is uncapture?: Uncapture can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce uncapture?: Uncapture is pronounced /ʌnˈkæpt͡ʃə(ɹ)/.
What is the past tense of uncapture?: The past tense of uncapture is uncaptured.

Adapted from Wiktionary: uncapture (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “uncapture.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/uncapture. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.