Meaning

To remove (film, cotton, etc.) from a spool; unwind..

Definitions by Sense

1. To remove (film, cotton, etc.) from a spool; unwind.
2. (aviation) To reduce the thrust of a jet engine to idle in flight.
3. (slang, of a film) To play; to be screened.
4. (ambitransitive) To flow forth, unfold, or play out.
5. (ambitransitive) To lose or cause to lose one's composure; to fall apart.
6. (ambitransitive) To relax or become relaxed; to unwind.

Example Sentences

Next, unspool twenty cubits of the thin silver wire thread and cut this length in half. If you have less than twenty cubits, unspool all you have, and cut it in two equal parts.

He lifted out the roll of tickets and began to unspool a dozen.

During this 14-second period, the airplane accelerated to about 173 KIAS, and the first officer retarded the throttles. By 1805:15, despite the instructions in the Delta L-1011 Pilot Operating Manual (POM), which states, “do not unspool the engines,” all three engines were either at, or very near, flight idle EPR and remained at that thrust level until 1805:22.

Let all the films of Keaton and Wenders unspool blackly across your mind like the negative of the white line still unspooling down a road in God's imagination, long after the end of his road movie of the end of the world.

Trailers for upcoming movies unspool—The Nutty Professor is playing on Tuesday, along with Cinderfella.

The landscape and the living figures of that summer, as in some umber-smeared snapshot found in the brittle black pages of an old album, had become more dusty and indistinct as time for me unspooled with negligent haste into my own middle age, yet that summer's agony still cried out for explanation.

At first, he was vague about his reason for coming in, talking about his uncertainty regarding the future and a few other stressors, but as he let his story unspool, he revealed the real reason.

I'd watch birds, trail my hands in the water, duck under the boughs of sweeper trees, and watch the river unspool before me.

Word Forms

• unspools
• unspooling
• unspooled

Related Words

When Should You Use Unspool?

Use unspool when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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