unstay

U1N1S1T1A1Y4

verb

To undo the establishment of; disestablish; dissolve; divest.

Scrabble 9
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Meanings

verbunstay (third-person singular simple present unstays, present participle unstaying, simple past and past participle unstayed)

present singular third person unstays · participle present unstaying · participle past unstayed · past unstayed

  1. transitiveTo undo the establishment of; disestablish; dissolve; divest.

    He plays with the late Watts-Dunton and gets good fun out of it; he rips open the sham, unstays the imperfect, sonnet ; he tackles all fretters of the great English instrument and worries them all, yet with a fine sanity.

    1918, Ford Madox Ford, The English review
    1 more example

    "[...] And true it is that the life of man is in the hands of God; and the state of kingdoms doth also belong to Him, to stay or to unstay them." All men had clearly foreseen that Edward's death would beget the evils of a disputed succession.

    1967, John Nichols, The Gentleman's magazine
  2. transitiveTo expel; expulse; remove; release; rid.

    Staying on a mount that is trying to unstay you is a historic procedure of the livestock business.

    2005, Ivan Doig, English Creek

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
remove

Origin

From un- + stay.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Anytus
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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