uncast

uncast verb: to detach (a rope, line, etc.).

Verb

uncast (third-person singular simple present uncasts, present participle uncasting, simple past and past participle uncast or (common, but sometimes proscribed) uncasted)

To detach (a rope, line, etc.).
- […] the vessel, uncasting the hawser which had detained it, instantly left the ice […]1846, Francis Bond Head, chapter 12, in The Emigrant, London: John Murray, page 264
- […] I pulled up my dinghy and uncast the painter, and pushed off and left them there together, Sir Philip and Lady Stenning.1932, Neville Shute, Lonely Road, London: Heinemann, Chapter
To bring back to a standing position (a horse or other large animal that is lying down with its legs under it).
- At about one o’clock we finally put Araby in her stall, but she kept getting cast. She would roll over, hitting the side of the stall with her legs and was unable to get up. […] We had to uncast her every fifteen minutes from one A.M. until seven the next morning.1998, Joan Grady-Fitchett, Flying Lessons: On the Wings of Parkinson’s Disease, New York: Forge, Entry Thirty, p. 144
To reverse the effects of (a magical spell).
- The while it is the fairies’ hour
  The fairies’ tricks are full of power.
  But when the hour is overpast
  By wisdom we their spells uncast.1920, Margaret Lynch Conger, “The Good Housewife and her Labors”, in Folk Story Plays for Children, New York: James A. McCann
- […] I saw the shamans casting and uncasting spells to protect themselves and steal the souls of their neighbors’ children.2002, Dirk Wittenborn, chapter 11, in Fierce People, New York: Bloomsbury, page 94
To remove (an actor) from a role that was previously assigned to them.
- ‘You CANNOT uncast me, Randy!’ hurtles from the prostrate patient.
- ‘Keep calm. I’m not saying you’re gonna get uncast. It’s just that having shot yourself, the insurance people are gonna be problematic. But it’ll be sorted. Trust me.’1998, Richard E. Grant, “High Anxiety”, in By Design: A Hollywood Novel, London: Picador, page 125

Adjective

uncast (not comparable)

Not having been cast (in various senses).
- […] if in casting your flie, the line fall into the water before it, the flie were better uncast, because it frights the fish […]1662, Robert Venables, chapter 10, in The Experienc’d Angler, London: Richard Marriot, page 100
- Let us hold the die uncast,
  Free to come as free to go:
  For I cannot know your past,
  And of mine what can you know?1861, Christina Rossetti, “Promises Like Pie-Crust”, in William Michael Rossetti, editor, New Poems by Christina Rossetti: hitherto unpublished or uncollected, London: Macmillan, published 1896, page...

Examples of uncast in a sentence

Denny, who has suffered from manic-depression for 35 years, returned home, her ballot uncast, as it has been in every election since she first registered to vote 15 years ago.1999 October 13, Erica Goode, “Gentle Drive to Make Voters of Those with Mental Illness”, in The New York Times:
Giordani is not available for the uncast performances.2007 October 8, Allan Kozinn, “Whofore Art Thou, O Tenor?”, in New York Times:

Forms of uncast

third-person singular present	uncasts
present participle	uncasting
past participle	uncast
past	uncast
past participle common error-unknown-tag proscribed sometimes	uncasted
past common error-unknown-tag proscribed sometimes	uncasted

Origin of uncast

From un- + cast.

Questions about uncast

What does uncast mean?: Uncast means to detach (a rope, line, etc.).
How do you use uncast in a sentence?: Denny, who has suffered from manic-depression for 35 years, returned home, her ballot uncast, as it has been in every election since she first registered to vote 15 years ago.
What part of speech is uncast?: Uncast can be a verb or an adjective.
What is the past tense of uncast?: The past tense of uncast is uncast.

Words near uncast in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: uncast (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: “uncast.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/uncast. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.