untwine

present singular third person untwines · participle present untwining · participle past untwined · past untwined

1. transitiveTo untwist the strands of (something entwined).

   The rope must be then untwined and the middle of each strand laid across the top and stitched down along the pencil line, half the length falling on one side, half on the other.

   1902, Lina Beard, Adelia B. Beard, chapter 24, in What a Girl Can Make and Do: New Ideas for Work and Play, New York: Scribner, page 284

2. transitiveTo free (one thing that is entwined with another), disentangle, extricate.

   She then untwined the snake from her body, and held it by the tail high above her.

   1864, George Macdonald, “The Light Princess”, in The Light Princess and Other Stories, London: Chatto & Windus, published 1891, page 74

   2 more examples

   Woe to the revolutionist who is not himself a creature of the revolution! If he anticipate, he is lost; for it requires, what no individual can supply, a long and powerful counter-sympathy in a nation to untwine the ties of custom which bind a people to the established and the old.

   1860, William Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic, London: William Blackwood, Volume 1, Lecture 5, p. 88

   She stood her ground until he reached her and flung both arms around her neck, dragging her to the floor. She later said the police had to untwine him before he could be taken to the ambulance.

   1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 26, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971

3. intransitiveTo become untwisted or disentangled.

   The zebra of their legs twined and untwined together on the bed.

   2004, Andrea Levy, chapter 29, in Small Island, London: Review, page 301

   1 more example

   As the tangled mass of men untwined, following the blast of the whistle, Sage heard Stone calling in his ear […]

   1912, Morgan Scott, chapter 14, in The Great Oakdale Mystery, New York: Hurst, page 155