MEANING
1. To release something from a coil, wrapping, or tangle, or to come free in this way.
2. To become, or help someone become, less tense after effort, stress, or worry.
3. To reverse or end an arrangement by taking the steps needed to undo it.
Use it for
describing a cord slowly coming off a spool; showing someone removing a wound bandage; depicting tension released through a physical uncoiling actionLinks physical uncoiling to emotional release while keeping reversal of an arrangement and gradual narrative development separate. Writing functions: Psychological states, Change / Pattern / Trend.
Words that belong together
- unwind a length of thread
- unwind a bandage
- a coil unwinds
On the page
She unwound the thread until the empty spool rattled against her wrist.
The cord unwound across the floor, revealing a knot near its end.
Only after the last guest had gone did she begin to unwind.
He used the walk home to unwind before entering the bright, crowded kitchen.
The firm unwound its positions gradually rather than selling every holding at once.
Word forms
- Base
- unwind
- Past tense
- unwound
- Past participle
- unwound
- Present participle
- unwinding
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- unwind
- Present continuous
- am/is/are unwinding
- Present perfect
- have/has unwound
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been unwinding
- Past
- unwound
- Past continuous
- was/were unwinding
- Past perfect
- had unwound
- Past perfect continuous
- had been unwinding
- Future
- will unwind
- Future continuous
- will be unwinding
- Future perfect
- will have unwound
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been unwinding
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Transitive or intransitive by sense: unwinds, unwound, unwound, unwinding; future will unwind. Not unwinded. Unwind a coil; unwind after work; unwind a position. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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