Word.ws English Dictionary

unlimber

unlimber verb: to detach (an artillery piece) from its limber to deploy for firing.

Verb

unlimber (third-person singular simple present unlimbers, present participle unlimbering, simple past and past participle unlimbered)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To detach (an artillery piece) from its limber to deploy for firing.
    • The gun he drove had been unlimbered near Horsell, in order to command the sand-pits, and its arrival had precipitated the action.1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, “At the Window”, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, →OCLC, book I (The Coming of the Martians), page 83
  2. (broadly, transitive) To clumsily put into employ (a large weapon or object).
  3. (broadly, transitive) To unsling (something, as a backpack, carried on the body with a strap); to bring (something carried) into the hands for use.
  4. (figuratively, transitive) To stretch (limbs, muscles, etc., that have been cramped or unused for some time).
    • "I fancy," said Psmith, "that this is one of those moments when it is necessary for me to unlimber my Sherlock Holmes system. […] Do you follow me, Comrade Maloney?" / "That's right," said Billy Windsor. "Of course." / "Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary," murmured Psmith.1909 October – 1910 February, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “In Pleasant Street”, in Psmith Journalist, London: A[dam] & C[harles] Black, […], published October 1923, →OCLC, page 140
    • Bony jumped down and unlimbered his cramped muscles before going after his camels.1963, Arthur Upfield, The Lake Frome Monster, London: Pan Books, published 1969, page 111

Adjective

unlimber (comparative more unlimber, superlative most unlimber)

  1. (transitive) Not limber; lacking flexibility.

Antonyms of unlimber

Forms of unlimber

Verb
third-person singular presentunlimbers
present participleunlimbering
past participleunlimbered
pastunlimbered
Adjective
comparativemore unlimber
superlativemost unlimber

Origin of unlimber

From un- + limber.

Questions about unlimber

What does unlimber mean?
Unlimber means to detach (an artillery piece) from its limber to deploy for firing.
What part of speech is unlimber?
Unlimber can be a verb or an adjective.
What is the past tense of unlimber?
The past tense of unlimber is unlimbered.

Words near unlimber in the dictionary

  1. unlikens
  2. unlikes
  3. unliking
  4. unlimb
  5. unlimbed
  6. unlimber
  7. unlimbered
  8. unlimbering
  9. unlimbers
  10. unlimbing
  11. unlimbs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unlimber (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.

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