Word.ws English Dictionary

unfurl

UK/ʌnˈfəːl/US/ʌnˈfɝl/

unfurl verb: to unroll or release something that had been rolled up, typically a sail or a flag.

Verb

unfurl (third-person singular simple present unfurls, present participle unfurling, simple past and past participle unfurled)

  1. To unroll or release something that had been rolled up, typically a sail or a flag.
    • They unfurled the flag at the start of the festival.
    • BEHIND him lay the gray Azores, / Behind the Gates of Hercules; / Before him not the ghost of shores, / Before him only shoreless seas. // The good mate said: “Now must we pray, / For lo! the very stars are gone. / Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?” / “Why, say, ‘Sail on! sail on! and...1892, Joaquin Miller, Columbus
    Synonyms:
    splay
  2. (figuratively) To roll out or debut anything.
    • When will we be unfurling the new feature?
    • Befitting the gray-brown clothes, bagged eyes, and licorice hair of its figures, Memoir Of A Snail unfurls the spiraling tale of two orphans persevering on Australia’s fringes.2024 October 23, Jacob Oller, “Clay weepy Memoir Of A Snail crawls through a gauntlet of misery”, in AV Club
  3. (intransitive) To open up by unrolling.
  4. (figuratively, intransitive) To turn out or unfold; to evolve; to progress.

unfurl meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Kannada

unfurl in Tamil

விரி, கப்பல் பாயினை அவிழ்த்துவிரி, கொடியை அகலப்பறக்கவிட, சுருள் விரிவுறுத்து, சுருள் பிரிவுறு, பரவிச் செல்

unfurl in Urdu

لہرانا, پھیلانا

unfurl in Kannada

ಬಿಚ್ಚಿ ಹರಡು, ನಿಮಿರು, ನಿಗಚು, ನಿಗಿಚು, ನಿಗುಚು, ನಿವುಚು

Examples of unfurl in a sentence

  • The sailors are visible in the rigging, about to unfurl the remaining sails.
  • Burnett unfurled his limbs in the precise yet fluid phrasing employed by voguers.
  • Geeking, unsurprisingly, was among the first carnival acts to be outlawed as the 20th century unfurled.

All 15 example sentences with unfurl

Synonyms of unfurl

Antonyms

Forms of unfurl

third-person singular presentunfurls
present participleunfurling
past participleunfurled
pastunfurled

Past tense of unfurl: unfurled

Origin of unfurl

From un- + furl.

Words formed from unfurl

Words that rhyme with unfurl

25 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about unfurl

What does unfurl mean?
Unfurl means to unroll or release something that had been rolled up, typically a sail or a flag.
What is unfurl in Tamil?
Unfurl in Tamil is விரி, கப்பல் பாயினை அவிழ்த்துவிரி, கொடியை அகலப்பறக்கவிட. See Unfurl meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is unfurl?
Unfurl is a verb.
How do you pronounce unfurl?
Unfurl is pronounced /ʌnˈfəːl/ (UK).
What is the past tense of unfurl?
The past tense of unfurl is unfurled.

Words near unfurl in the dictionary

  1. unfur
  2. unfurbelowed
  3. unfurbished
  4. unfurcate
  5. unfurious
  6. unfurl
  7. unfurlable
  8. unfurled
  9. unfurling
  10. unfurlings
  11. unfurloughed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unfurl (page history and authors); unfurl (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); unfurl (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); unfurl (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-unfurl.ogg.

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