unsmother
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Verb[edit]
unsmother (third-person singular simple present unsmothers, present participle unsmothering, simple past and past participle unsmothered)
- To release from smothering.
- 1611, George Chapman, May Day: A Comedy:
- A tale, a very tale, Angelo ! enter for the love of heaven! enter and unsmother me!
- 1972, Dalton H. McBee, Writer's Journal: Explorations, page 12:
- Write out a conversation of " smothered thoughts . " Then " unsmother ” them .
- 1975, Duane G. Newcomb, Word power makes the difference: making what you write pay off:
- In addition, we also often insert inactive verb motors in our writing that really drag. We must then both unsmother our verbs and replace them with words that make the sentence move.
- 1980, Antler, Factor, page 61:
- No more strangleholds! Ungag our souls!! Unstrangle our souls!! Unsmother our souls!!
- 1994, John Fox, The Poetry of Fifteenth-century France - Volume 1, page 63:
- I am quite smothered with grief, but love requires me to unsmother what unhappiness smothers in me, and my smothered mutterings must be mutedly unsmothered, for I can no longer smother the mutterings I now must unsmother.
- 1997, Karin Kavelin Jones, Antonio Ligabue, Beast in the Mirror: The Life of Outsider Artist Antonio Ligabue, page 90:
- He bent down to unsmother a still-warm vineroot and coaxed it alive.