v. [UN-2 4 b.]
1. trans. To set free, release, from a chain or chains; to remove the chain(s) from.
1582. N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., I. lxxiii. 150. Being in a readinesse to uncheine his Mastes, he was presently informed that the king of Calicut was reforming a new his Castles.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. iii. 31. Vnchaine your spirits now with spelling Charmes, And try if they can gaine your liberty.
1664. Dryden & Howard, Ind. Queen, III. i. They may By force unchain, and crown him in a day.
1679. Alsop, Melius Inq., I. ii. 108. When the Righteous God saw it necessary to unchain the Devil, and let him loose upon the English Protestants.
1704. Prior, Prol. Her Majesty’s Birth-day, 37. So was his Fame compleat, and Andromede unchain’d.
1831–7. Praed, Bridal of Belmont, 113. The young Count clambered down the rock, Unfurled the sail, unchained the oar.
1868. Dickens, Uncomm. Trav., xxviii. He used his utmost influence to get the man unchained from the bedstead.
absol. 1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Gt. Winglebury Duel. Up started the ostlers … unstrapping, and unchaining, and unbuckling, and dragging willing horses out.
b. transf. and fig. To set free; to liberate.
1793. H. Walpole, in Miss Berry, Jrnls. & Corr. (1865), I. 425. I unchain my impatience, which has behaved like an angel.
1796. Coleridge, Destiny of Nations, 111. Yet the wizard her … Forces to unchain the foodful progeny Of the Ocean stream.
1811. H. G. Knight, Phrosyne, 40. Stern Winter … Unleafs the forest, and unchains the wind.
1855. [J. D. Burn], Autobiog. Beggar Boy (1859), 13. You may form some little opinion of my position when my father unchained his lawless desires.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 175. The storm … swept over … as if a fresh blast had been unchained among the far south ice-fields.
2. To free from obstruction by the removal of a chain. Also fig.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. iii. Gaze on mine eyes, whose life-infusing beames Haue powre to melt the Icy Northern streames, And so inflame the Gods of those bound Seas They should vnchaine their virgin passages.
1663. Davenant, Siege of Rhodes, I. 31. Away! unchain the Streets, unearth the Ports!… And bravely sally out from all the Forts!
Hence Unchaining vbl. sb.
[1775. Ash.]
1835. Mrs. Hemans, Carolan’s Prophecy, 13. Many stood waiting around, in silent earnestness, Th’ unchaining of his soul.
1871. W. B. Jerrold, At Home in Paris, II. vii. II. 147. It was a wicked, reckless unchaining of the hates long nursed, of the two foremost military nations of the world.
