unfret

present singular third person unfrets · participle present unfretting · participle past unfretted · past unfretted

1. transitiveTo smooth after being fretted.

   So unfret that brow, put your worries behind you, let's see some jolly light those eyes.

   2000, Robert Devereaux, Santa Steps Out, page 33

   3 more examples

   My mind misgives: to Joppa will I fly, And for a while to Tharsus shape my course, Until the Lord unfret his angry brows.

   1590, Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene, A Looking Glass for London and England

   For how many floodings must it assuage, For how many shufflings must it unfret Those winking, muttering banks with its aching arch.

   1956, Shenandoah - Volumes 8-9, page 65

   Much of the alleged roughness of Donne's prosody unfrets itself without betraying his refusal of mellifluous regularity – if readers fit word lengths and rests into lines as singers do.

   1997, Diane Kelsey McColley, Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England, page 99

2. ambitransitivebroadlyTo sooth or calm; to make or become less fretful or stressed.

   Fall back and unfret yourself, Ol' Fuzzer!

   2003, Milton Arthur Caniff, Steve Canyon, 1948, page 11

   3 more examples

   "She'll be all right," Madge assured him. "Now you go out a while, and unfret yourself. It's a boy you've got."

   1936, Frederick Stallknecht Wight, The Chronicle of Aaron Kane, page 28

   My laugh is a light, gentle trill, perfectly tuned to unfret him immediately.

   2008, Patricia A. Kuess, Slather

   Though helpless, I could not help standing as mute witness and let the situation unfret without trying to do something and I almost shouted in high pitch, "Why are you beating him? What has he done to you? We are students from University and going home. We are innocent."

   2009, Bholanath Das, Reflection of Human Behaviour, page 56

3. To remove (a string) from the frets of a musical instrument.

   To avoid confusion, a 0 appears if, as is usually the case, the string is to be unfretted;

   2011, Ken Perlman, Celtic and New England Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo, page 6

   2 more examples

   Just as several notes can be played on a single bow, the guitarist can play several notes with a single pluck, using legato or ligado techniques in which the left hand continues to fret or unfret notes after the string has been plucked.

   1985, John Schneider, The Contemporary Guitar, page 108

   You may wish to approach the fingering by moving only one finger at a time, and only then when you absolutely must move it to a new position, or unfret the string so it may be played open.

   2011, Janita Baker, Fingerpicking Dulcimer, page 17