verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To open (something that was clenched). transitive

   "The baby stopped crying and unclenched her fists."

2. 2
   To relax, especially one's muscles. intransitive

   "Bill, take some deep breaths and unclench."

Synonyms

All synonyms

barecleardeobstructdiscloseexposefree

Antonyms

All antonyms

clench

Example

More examples

"The baby stopped crying and unclenched her fists."

Etymology

From Middle English unclenchen, equivalent to un- + clench.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.