unwigging

unwigging is the present participle and gerund of unwig.

Noun

unwigging (plural unwiggings)

The act of removing a wig from someone.
- The frontispiece by Hogarth seems to represent the unwigging and unfrocking of the Author and the tearing of his paper in the presence of the Vice-Chancellor, proctor, and other members of the University […]1874, Christopher Wordsworth, editor, Social Life at the English Universities in the Eighteenth Century, Cambridge: Deighton, Bell & Co., p. 612, note to p. 43
- A colonial number at the close had all three dancers out, they being slippered for the first time. The idea of the dance was the unwigging of one of the “girls,” who turned out to be a boy.1921 November 4, “New Acts This Week: Myles Mershon and Co., ‘Dance Creations,’”, in Variety, volume 64, number 11, page 20
The act of dismissing someone from a position marked by the wearing of a wig, such as a barrister or judge.
- Perhaps I should explain the obscure legal process that has to be gone through in the unfrocking, or should I say unwigging, of a barrister.1992, John Mortimer, “Rumpole on Trial”, in Rumpole on Trial, Penguin, page 225

unwig (third-person singular simple present unwigs, present participle unwigging, simple past and past participle unwigged)

(transitive) To remove a wig from.
- Painter. Sir, ’Squire Lumpkin, the little, round, fine gentleman, employ’d me to paint white wigs, upon all the pictures, at half-a-crown a head. […]
  Tony. Can you unwig ’em again?1780, John O’Keeffe, Tony Lumpkin in Town, London: T. Cadell, act 2, pages 34–35
(transitive) To remove (someone) from a position marked by the wearing of a wig, such as that of barrister or judge.
- […] only the other day, in Dublin, a high dignitary of the law did exhibit such palpable partiality in a cause of “Victoria versus Repeal,” that he ought to have been unwigged there and then, and banished for ever from that arena of marked injustice to poor ould Ireland, and her patriot sons.1844, Charles Waterton, “The Wren, the Hedge-Sparrow, and the Robin” in Essays on Natural History, Chiefly Ornithology, Second Series, London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, p. 96
(intransitive) To take off one's wig.
- The man is a good female impersonator, with a deceptive voice. He handles himself well and is a good dresser. No one in the line ever got more from removing the wig than does this man, who uses good judgment in selecting the proper moment to unwig.1911 August 19, “Fifth Avenue”, in Variety, volume 23, number 11, page 22

plural	unwiggings

What does unwigging mean?: Unwigging means the act of removing a wig from someone.
What is unwigging the present participle and gerund of?: Unwigging is the present participle and gerund of unwig.
What part of speech is unwigging?: Unwigging is a noun.
What is the plural of unwigging?: The plural of unwigging is unwiggings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: unwigging (page history and authors); unwig (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: “unwigging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unwigging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.