Unreeve
verb
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 To withdraw or take out, as for example a rope from a block. transitive
"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."
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
From Middle English *unreven (attested only in past participle unrevyn) equivalent to un- + reeve.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.