unpublish

unpublish verb: to remove (something previously published) from circulation; to retract.

Verb

unpublish (third-person singular simple present unpublishes, present participle unpublishing, simple past and past participle unpublished)

(transitive) To remove (something previously published) from circulation; to retract.
- To unpublish a calendar: 1. In the Applications folder, double-click the iCal icon to open the application. The main iCal window opens; in the Calendars section on the left, published calendars have a small mark to the right of their names […]2005, David Reynolds, Mac, page 178
- Burns' political sentiments were already clearly delineated in 'A Dream' and no amount of etiquette could unpublish that poem.2011, Patrick Scott Hogg, Robert Burns: The Patriot Bard

We have a strict policy on unpublishing: We don’t.2013 January 16, Margaret Sullivan, “Make No Mistake, but if You Do, Here’s How to Correct It”, in The New York Times:
You unpublish a category to hide it from display on the front end of the website.2013, Ric Shreves, Joomla! Bible, page 342:

third-person singular present	unpublishes
present participle	unpublishing
past participle	unpublished
past	unpublished

From un- + publish.

What does unpublish mean?: Unpublish means to remove (something previously published) from circulation; to retract.
How do you use unpublish in a sentence?: We have a strict policy on unpublishing: We don’t.
What part of speech is unpublish?: Unpublish is a verb.
What is the past tense of unpublish?: The past tense of unpublish is unpublished.

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