Meanings
present singular third person unships · participle present unshipping · participle past unshipped · past unshipped
- transitivenauticalTo remove (an oar, a mast, etc.) from its normal position.
Dan sluiced the pen energetically, unshipped the table, set it up to dry in the moonlight, ran the red knife-blades through a wad of oakum, and began to sharpen them on a tiny grindstone […]
1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous - archaicTo throw from a horse; to unseat.
Ben hired a nag, but 'twould stumble of course, / And by falling endanger poor Ben, / Aye, and over her bows, sir, this crazy old horse / Would unship, and unship him again.
1823 February 8, L. O., “Ballast”, in The Mirror, number XV, page 2401 more example
Before starting Mytton posted a wagoner at a spot on the "course" where the slope was steep, and gave him orders to cry "Whoa!" as the horses passed him. The man did so, with the result that two of the friends were unshipped by the abruptness of the stop to which their clumsy mounts came on hearing the familiar order.
1901 October 11, “Gleanings”, in The Agricultural Journal and Mining Record, volume 4, number 16, page 497
Origin
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
unship. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unship
“unship.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unship. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unship,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unship.
Source: unship on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.