untie

present singular third person unties · participle present untying · participle past untied · past untied

1. transitiveTo loosen, as something interlaced or knotted; to disengage the parts of.

   to untie a knot

   2 more examples

   Haſt thou the pretty vvorme of Nylus [an asp] there, / That killes and paines not? / […] / Come thou mortal vvretch, / VVith thy ſharpe teeth this knot intrinſicate, / Of life at once vntye: Poore venomous Foole, / Be angry, and diſpatch.

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 367

   Sacharissa's captive fain / Would untie his iron chain.

   1645, Edmund Waller, To Amoret

2. transitiveTo free from fastening or from restraint; to let loose; to unbind.

   Though you untie the winds, and let them fight / Against the churches.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

   1 more example

   All the evils of an untied tongue we put upon the accounts of drunkenness.

   1651, Jer[emy] Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living. […], 2nd edition, London: […] Francis Ashe […], →OCLC

3. To resolve; to unfold; to clear.

   They quicken sloth, perplexities untie.

   1668, John Denham, Of Prudence (poem)

4. intransitiveTo become untied or loosed.
5. transitivecomputingIn the Perl programming language, to undo the process of tying, so that a variable uses default instead of custom functionality.

   After you finish with the INI file, all you need to do is untie the hash. Then you really are finished!

   2002, Dave Roth, Win32 Perl Programming: The Standard Extensions, page 151