unanchor

U1N1A1N1C3H4O1R1

verb

To raise an anchor or to free a vessel from an anchor.

OriginEnglish anchor ← Middle English anker ← Old English ancor →
Scrabble 13
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Meanings

verbunanchor (third-person singular simple present unanchors, present participle unanchoring, simple past and past participle unanchored)

present singular third person unanchors · participle present unanchoring · participle past unanchored · past unanchored

  1. transitiveTo raise an anchor or to free a vessel from an anchor.
  2. broadlytransitiveTo liberate.
  3. intransitiveTo become loose or physically unattached.
  4. transitivecomputingTo release from a fixed position and allow to be moved.

    To unanchor the cell cursor so that you can move it into position for selecting another range, press Shift+F8. This puts you in Add to Selection mode, in which you can move to the first cell of the next range without selecting any more cells.

    2012, Greg Harvey, Excel 2010 For Dummies

Origin

  1. Englishun-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₂enk-der.?
  3. Ancient Greekᾰ̓́γκῡρᾰ (ắnkūră)bor.?
  4. Latinancora
  5. Proto-Germanic*ankurô
  6. Proto-West Germanic*ankurō
  7. Old Englishancor
  8. Middle Englishanker
  9. Englishanchor
  10. Englishunanchor

From un- + anchor.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

unanchor. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unanchor

MLA

“unanchor.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unanchor. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unanchor,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unanchor.

Source: unanchor on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.