unclose
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Etymology edit
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unclose (third-person singular simple present uncloses, present participle unclosing, simple past and past participle unclosed)
- (transitive) To open; to unclench.
- 1807, [Miss Guion], chapter I, in The Three Germans. Mysteries Exemplified in the Life of Holstein of Lutztein. A German Romance. […], volume I, London: […] J[ames] F[letcher] Hughes, […], →OCLC, page 11:
- They measured it to some considerable length—another door presented itself to the searching hand of Carlstadt the Baron, but resisted the repeated efforts made to unclose it.
- 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.112:
- His eyes he opened, shut, again unclosed, / For all was doubt and dizziness […]
- 1822, Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Triumph of Life:
- All flowers in field or forest which unclose
Their trembling eyelids to the kiss of day,
Swinging their censers in the element,
With orient incense lit by the new ray
Burned slow and inconsumably, and sent
Their odorous sighs up to the smiling air […]
- 2000, Hayden White, Figural Realism: Studies in the Mimesis Effect, page 78:
- Not a word passed between them as she went to the cupboard in the corner and replaced the hammer, which she had taken without asking leave; together—she unclosed her fist—with a handful of nails.