unreeve
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English *unreven (attested only in past participle unrevyn) equivalent to un- + reeve.
Verb edit
unreeve (third-person singular simple present unreeves, present participle unreeving, simple past and past participle unreeved)
- (transitive, nautical) To withdraw or take out, as for example a rope from a block.
- 1896, F. Hopkinson Smith, Tom Grogan[1]:
- He could not only splice a broken "fall," and repair the sheaves and friction-rollers in a hoisting-block, but whenever the rigging got tangled aloft he could spring up the derrick like a cat and unreeve the rope in an instant.
- 1909, A. W. Dimock, Dick in the Everglades[2]:
- But he carried all sail till the rotten main-sheet parted at the boom, and when he came up in the wind to lower the sail the main throat halyard refused to unreeve.