unscrew

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ screw.

Verb

unscrew (third-person singular simple present unscrews, present participle unscrewing, simple past and past participle unscrewed)

1. (transitive) To loosen a screw or thing by turning it.

   I'm having some trouble unscrewing the lid of this jar.

   • 1984 May 31, Joseph Giovannini, “THE ENDURING FASCINATION OF SECRET PLACES”, in The New York Times‎:

     It requires opening a complex lock with a key that also unscrews a bolt six inches long. Unscrewing the bolt itself takes six minutes.

   • 2003 July 6, Edward Tenner, “'Our Own Devices'”, in The New York Times‎:

     A young orangutan in the San Diego Zoo became famous for unbolting the screening of his crib, removing the wires, and moving through the zoo nursery, unscrewing lightbulbs.

   • 2018 December 31, Natalie Kitroeff, “‘A Pumping Conspiracy’: Why Workers Smuggled Breast Pumps Into Prison”, in The New York Times‎:

     Ms. Van Son unscrewed the pump’s handle and shoved it into her bra.

   • 2019 July 3, Mariel Padilla and Derrick Bryson Taylor, “The Bottle Cap Challenge Spins On, Helped by Cars, Sandals and Mariah Carey”, in The New York Times‎:

     The challenge is how to unscrew the cap with a roundhouse kick without knocking the bottle over.

Antonyms

• screw

Translations

loosen a screw etc.

Bulgarian: отвивам (bg) (otvivam), развинтвам (bg) (razvintvam) Danish: skrue ud Finnish: ruuvata auki (of screws); kiertää auki (of something else, like a lid) French: dévisser (fr) Galician: desaparafusar German: abschrauben (de), losschrauben (de) Ido: desskrubagar (io), desvisar (io) Italian: svitare (it) Mongolian: эрэг сулрах (ereg sulrax) Norwegian: Bokmål: skru ut Polish: odkręcać Portuguese: desaparafusar, desparafusar Romanian: deșuruba (ro) Spanish: desatornillar (es), destornillar (es), desenroscar (es) (a lid)