unwind
/ʌnˈwaɪnd/
unwind verb: to separate (something that is wound up).
Verb
unwind (third-person singular simple present unwinds, present participle unwinding, simple past and past participle unwound)
- To separate (something that is wound up)
- to unwind a ball of yarn
- Could you unwind about a foot of ribbon so I can finish the package?
- To disentangle
- […]but being not so skilful as in every point to unwind themselves where the snares of glossing speech do lie to entangle them,[…]1836, Richard Hooker, The Works of Richard Hooker, volume 4, page 27
- To relax; to chill out; to rest and become relieved of stress
- After work, I like to unwind by smoking a pipe while reading the paper.
- To be or become unwound; to be capable of being unwound or untwisted.
- To close out a position, especially a complicated position.
- To undo something.
- To navigate back through (a call stack) so as to generate a stack trace etc.
- If the expression is a throw, we unwind the stack seeking a handler expression.2006, Hans-Wolfgang Loidl, Trends in Functional Programming, volume 5, page 62
- Synonym of unroll (“replace a loop with a sequence”).
- Synonyms:
- unroll
- To unravel or explain.
Noun
unwind (plural unwinds)
- Any mechanism or operation that unwinds something.
- The NEWPC argument specifies the address to which control should be returned after the unwind is complete. If it is omitted, its default is for control to return to the PC saved in the call frame next outermost to the unwound ones.1989, Ruth E. Goldenberg, Lawrence J. Kenah, VMS Internals and Data Structures: Version 5 Update
- A primary function of the unwind is to provide a guided web into the slitter rewinder for accuracy in locating the web for slitting or to realign the edge of the web in a straight rewinding operation.1998, Tappi Journal, volume 81, page 207
unwind meaning in Malayalam
unwind in Malayalam
- unravel, unroll, uncoil
- ചുറ്റഴിക്കുക, പിരിയഴിക്കുക, ചുരുളഴിക്കുക, കുരുക്കഴിക്കുക, നൂലാമാല തീർക്കുക, തിരിച്ചു തുറക്കുക
- loosen up, relax, ease up
- ആശ്വസിക്കുക, വിശ്രമിക്കുക, അയവാക്കുക, ഇളവേൽക്കുക, ഇളവെടുക്കുക, വേഗതകുറയ്ക്കുക
Examples of unwind in a sentence
- Small arms unwound from the nursebots and began to press nozzles and needles into Ramon's flesh.
- He unwound from the table and slid a couple of Alex Hamiltons beside his plate.
- If the expression is a throw, we unwind the stack seeking a handler expression.
Synonyms of unwind
Forms of unwind
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | unwinds |
| present participle | unwinding |
| past participle | unwound |
| past | unwound |
| Noun | |
| plural | unwinds |
Origin of unwind
From Middle English unwinden, from Old English unwindan (“to unwind; unwrap”), from Proto-Germanic *andawindaną (“to unwind”); equivalent to un- + wind (“to coil”). Cognate with Dutch ontwinden (“to unwind”).
Words formed from unwind
Words that rhyme with unwind
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- signed
- unbind
- unkind
- unmind
- aligned
- chined
- combined
- defined
- designed
- Glynde
- hind
- inclined
- intertwined
- rebind
- spined
- to one's mind
- unassigned
- undersigned
- uninclined
- unlined
- upwind
- vined
- wynd
- amind
- animalkind
- assigned
- brined
- crined
- declined
- dined
- enshrined
- entwined
- fined
- humankind
- mined
- misaligned
- pined
- presence of mind
- re-signed
- realigned
- reassigned
- redefined
- redesigned
- remind
- resigned
- rined
- shined
- twined
Questions about unwind
- What does unwind mean?
- Unwind means to separate (something that is wound up).
- What is unwind in Malayalam?
- Unwind in Malayalam is ചുറ്റഴിക്കുക, പിരിയഴിക്കുക, ചുരുളഴിക്കുക. See Unwind meaning in Malayalam.
- What part of speech is unwind?
- Unwind can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce unwind?
- Unwind is pronounced /ʌnˈwaɪnd/.
- What is the past tense of unwind?
- The past tense of unwind is unwound.
Words near unwind in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: unwind (page history and authors); unwind (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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-unwind.ogg.
Cite this entry: “unwind.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unwind. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.