unwind

present singular third person unwinds · participle present unwinding · participle past unwound · past unwound

1. transitiveTo separate (something that is wound up)

   to unwind a ball of yarn

   1 more example

   Could you unwind about a foot of ribbon so I can finish the package?

   Synonyms: untwist, untwine

2. obsoletetransitiveTo disentangle

   […]but being not so skilful as in every point to unwind themselves where the snares of glossing speech do lie to entangle them,[…]

   1836, Richard Hooker, The Works of Richard Hooker, volume 4, page 27

3. colloquialintransitiveTo relax; to chill out; to rest and become relieved of stress

   After work, I like to unwind by smoking a pipe while reading the paper.

4. intransitiveTo be or become unwound; to be capable of being unwound or untwisted.
5. transitivebusinessTo close out a position, especially a complicated position.
6. transitivebusinessTo undo something.
7. transitivecomputingTo navigate back through (a call stack) so as to generate a stack trace etc.

   If the expression is a throw, we unwind the stack seeking a handler expression.

   2006, Hans-Wolfgang Loidl, Trends in Functional Programming, volume 5, page 62

8. transitivecomputingSynonym of unroll (“replace a loop with a sequence”).

   Synonyms: unroll

9. figurativelytransitiveTo unravel or explain.

plural unwinds

1. Any mechanism or operation that unwinds something.

   A primary function of the unwind is to provide a guided web into the slitter rewinder for accuracy in locating the web for slitting or to realign the edge of the web in a straight rewinding operation.

   1998, Tappi Journal, volume 81, page 207

   1 more example

   The NEWPC argument specifies the address to which control should be returned after the unwind is complete. If it is omitted, its default is for control to return to the PC saved in the call frame next outermost to the unwound ones.

   1989, Ruth E. Goldenberg, Lawrence J. Kenah, VMS Internals and Data Structures: Version 5 Update