unravel
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
to separate threads that are twisted together or to undo something that is knitted.
to disentangle or separate the threads of a woven, knitted, or tangled fabric.
Simple“The cat played with the yarn until it started to unravel across the floor.”
In context“She carefully began to unravel the old sweater, hoping to salvage the high-quality wool for a new project.”
UsageCan be used transitively with an object or intransitively when the fabric itself comes apart.
“It's a family's herd with nothing to eat, a market with fewer animals to sell, a community's food security unravelling in real time.”
“Deborah Levy’s Hot Milk , adapted as a film last year by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, chronicles a family unravelling in a Spanish fishing village.”
PIE word *h₂énti From un- (suffix denoting the inverse of the specified action) + ravel. cognates * Dutch ontrafelen (“to unravel”)
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.