unsmother

present singular third person unsmothers · participle present unsmothering · participle past unsmothered · past unsmothered

1. transitiveTo release (someone) from smothering.

   He bent down to unsmother a still-warm vineroot and coaxed it alive.

   1997, Karin Kavelin Jones, Antonio Ligabue, Beast in the Mirror: The Life of Outsider Artist Antonio Ligabue, page 90

   5 more examples

   A tale, a very tale, Angelo, enter for the loue of heauen, enter and vnſmother me.

   1611, George Chapman, May-Day. A Witty Comedie, […], London: […] [William Stansby] for Iohn Brown, […], →OCLC, Act IV, page 59

   Write out a conversation of "smothered thoughts." Then "unsmother" them.

   1972, Dalton H. McBee, Writer’s Journal: Explorations, page 12

   In addition, we also often insert inactive verb motors in our writing that really drag. We must then both unsmother our verbs and replace them with words that make the sentence move.

   1975, Duane G. Newcomb, Word Power Makes the Difference: Making what You Write Pay off

   No more strangleholds! Ungag our souls!! Unstrangle our souls!! Unsmother our souls!!

   1980, Antler, Factor, page 61

   I am quite smothered with grief, but love requires me to unsmother what unhappiness smothers in me, and my smothered mutterings must be mutedly unsmothered, for I can no longer smother the mutterings I now must unsmother.

   1994, John Fox, The Poetry of Fifteenth-century France, volume 1, page 63