unreeve

present singular third person unreeves · participle present unreeving · participle past unreeved · past unreeved

1. transitivenauticalTo withdraw or take out, as for example a rope from a block.

   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.

   1909, A. W. Dimock, Dick in the Everglades

   1 more example

   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.

   1896, F. Hopkinson Smith, Tom Grogan