English

Verb

unwind ‎(third-person singular simple present unwinds, present participle unwinding, simple past and past participle unwound)

1. (transitive) To wind off; to loose or separate; to untwist; to untwine

   unwind a ball of yarn

   Could you unwind about a foot of ribbon so I can finish the package?

2. (transitive, obsolete) To disentangle
   • 1836, Richard Hooker, The Works of Richard Hooker, Volume 4, page 27:

     ... but being not so skilful as in every point to unwind themselves where the snares of glossing speech do lie to entangle them, ...

3. (intransitive, slang) To relax; to chill out; to rest and relieve of stress

   After work, I like to unwind by smoking a pipe while reading the paper.

4. (intransitive) To be or become unwound; to be capable of being unwound or untwisted.

Related terms

• wind

Translations