verbunbent

• 1Make or become straight from a bent or twisted form or position.

  with object ‘I had trouble unbending my cramped knees’

  More example sentences

  • ‘he unbent from the cockpit’
  • ‘As his knees unbend, his right hand follows through toward the target.’
  • ‘He unbent the metal he'd twisted around the bars to hold the cell shut and tossed it aside, opening the door to my prison.’
  • ‘He unbends his skinny frame from a nylon hammock and gives me a handshake more bone than flesh.’
  • ‘Out of the mountains, unbending slowly from dense groves of coconut palms, pushes the sweet water of the Rio La Laja.’
  • ‘They can stick to the cells for weeks and researchers have discovered that the usually bent antibody will unbend to secure itself to the mast cells.’
  • ‘That spoon remained unbent all through the episode.’
  • ‘Adrian asked me coolly as he unbent from checking if his victim was still conscious.’
  • ‘The beautiful green emeralds, mined by the Salfo't in the South, were smashed and only one silver reed remained unbent.’
  • ‘It didn't work because my fingers kept bending and unbending in his.’
  • ‘But the more I did it, the more my body relaxed and my legs became unbent.’
  • ‘Mark took the paperclip from her hand and unbent it.’
  • ‘Kel took a deep breath and unbent her long-idle arm slowly, watching the angle of her elbow go from acute to right to obtuse in a matter of seconds.’
  • ‘Basil smiled, and elegantly unbent himself from the doorframe on which he had been leaning.’
  • ‘The man slowly unbent himself, a look of disbelief on his face which was now slightly pink.’
  • ‘She expertly took a pin out of her hair, unbent it and slowly pushed it into the key hole of the knob.’
  • ‘Harvard's Tim Martin, who never unbends his elbow and who ‘goes for depth’ immediately, is the extreme example of this.’
  • ‘I know it is somewhat uneventful, but I should point out that should one of the pins get bent, you are going to have a heck of a time unbending it, as the pins are extremely closely spaced together and quite tiny.’
  • ‘She stood in the dark hallway and began unbending bobby pins.’
  • ‘Or for the less snarky solution, try and unbend them and donate them to the local Value Village or Salvation Army store.’
  • ‘Using round-nose pliers, unbend the wire handle ends inside the box and feed on large beads with large holes.’

  Synonyms

  straighten, straighten out, extend, flex, uncurl, flatten

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1no object Become less reserved, formal, or strict.
     ‘you could be fun too, you know, if you'd only unbend a little’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Ben Kingsley is superb as the man who lives for honour and his family but is too proud to unbend when trouble and culture dislocation strike.’
     • ‘Later, she unbends a bit; unlike Kitty, men don't leave her, ‘but they all go prematurely grey.’’
     • ‘Ian Bostridge's Jupiter gradually unbends to deliver the sweetest soft legato, Patricia Bardon's Juno is hilariously fiery as the queenly betrayed wife, and Janis Kelly camps Iris up something terrible.’
     • ‘Yet as soon as you unbend from the expectation of something drastically different (because that's what you heard, right?) they do it - breaking easily into the most melodic stretch of Fugazi song I've heard them undertake.’
     • ‘It fits perfectly the template for the new breed of Britflick; talented rebel clashes with buttoned-up pillars of the establishment, who are forced to unbend, and finally admit that self-expression, and so on, is a good thing.’
     • ‘Surrounded by musicians he knew and were, some of them his friends, Elgar would gradually thaw and eventually, if all went reasonably well, he unbent a little.’
     • ‘There was a fancy party where Katherine got to use her corporate skills and Phil made a hit by playing the bohemian, and there was a family cookout where even Rachael seemed to unbend a little.’
     • ‘Maybe I can offer you an incentive to unbend a little.’
     Synonyms

     relax, become less formal, become informal, unwind, de-stress, loosen up, let oneself go

     View synonyms

• 2Sailing
  with object Unfasten (sails) from yards and stays.

  More example sentences

  • ‘At daylight, we were driven down to the marine to unbend the sails and do other necessary work on the Cruisers that had captured us.’

  1. 2.1Untie or cast loose (a rope or cable).
     More example sentences

     • ‘Haste is made to unbend the cable; line after line is let go until we are held by one alone.’