unspinning

Verb

unspin (third-person singular simple present unspins, present participle unspinning, simple past and past participle unspun)

1. (transitive) To unravel (something spun, knit, or woven).
   • They cannot unspin or unweave themselves, they are threads either of warp or woof.1883, Andrew Seth Pringle-Pattison, Richard Burdon Haldane Haldane, Essays in Philosophical Criticism, page 237
2. (figuratively, transitive) To counteract fate.
   • Since pen and ink cannot alter facts, nor clotho herself unspin the thread of destiny ( § 39 ) , the historian's sole business is to narrate what has happened;1892, Xenophon, The Works of Xenophon, page xxxix
3. (ambitransitive) To untwist (something that is twisted or wound)
   • I contemplated "unspinning" everything into the two separate colors, but knew I did not have the patience to unwind that much yarn.1995, Spin Off - Volumes 19-21, page 76
4. To stop (something) from spinning.
   • You have to unspin it or the whole world will be sucked down into it.2012, Cynthia Gilstrap, The Defiant, page 57
5. (transitive) To unmake.
   • the garments of they righeousness are light as the web of gossamer, and shall be blown away by the breath of the Eternal, in that day when he will unspin all that nature hath ever woven.1869, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Sermons of the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, page 292
6. To counteract or decipher a complicated web of lies, statements, arguments, traditions, etc.
   • It was an impulse to use art to unspin poisonous “social/psycho/spiritual” formations.2013, Michael S. Collins, Understanding Etheridge Knight

See all 9 meanings of unspin