Library / English Dictionary

UNTIE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: untying   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Undo the ties of

Example:

They untied the prisoner

Synonyms:

unbrace; unlace; untie

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "untie" is one way to...):

undo (cancel, annul, or reverse an action or its effect)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "untie"):

unloose; unloosen (loosen the ties of)

unlash (untie the lashing of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Sentence example:

They want to untie the prisoners

Antonym:

tie (fasten or secure with a rope, string, or cord)

Derivation:

untier (a person who unfastens or unwraps or opens)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to become loose

Example:

loosen the necktie

Synonyms:

loosen; undo; untie

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "untie" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

untier (a person who unfastens or unwraps or opens)

untying (loosening the ties that fasten something)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Miss Mowcher untied her bonnet, at this passage of her discourse, threw back the strings, and sat down, panting, on a footstool in front of the fire—making a kind of arbour of the dining table, which spread its mahogany shelter above her head.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)