unstopper

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

un- +‎ stopper

Verb[edit]

unstopper (third-person singular simple present unstoppers, present participle unstoppering, simple past and past participle unstoppered)

  1. (transitive) To remove the stopper from.
    He unstoppered the little flask and took a few swigs.
    • 1922 October, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “Part II. A Game of Chess.”, in The Waste Land, 1st book edition, New York, N.Y.: Boni and Liveright, published December 1922, →OCLC, page 18:
      In vials of ivory and coloured glass / Unstoppered, lurked her strange synthetic perfumes, / Unguent, powdered, or liquid— []
    • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 57:
      That night the whisky was unstoppered and Bradly lolled in bed, smoking, and betimes sweeping out an arm of conquest for his nobbler and taking a lordly pull at it.