Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Unreeve

Un-reeve′

,
Verb.
T.
[1st pref.
un-
+
reeve
, v. t.]
(Naut.)
To withdraw, or take out, as a rope from a block, thimble, or the like.

Webster 1828 Edition


Unreeve

UNREEVE

,
Verb.
T.
unree'v. To withdraw or take out a rope from a block, thimble, &c. [See unreave.]

Definition 2024


unreeve

unreeve

English

Verb

unreeve (third-person singular simple present unreeves, present participle unreeving, simple past and past participle unreeved)

  1. (transitive, nautical) To withdraw or take out, as for example a rope from a block.
    • (Can we date this quote?), F. Hopkinson Smith, Tom Grogan:
      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:
      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.