v. [OE. untíʓan (UN-2 3, 7).]
1. trans. To release, set free, detach, by undoing a cord or similar fastening.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxi. 2. Þonne sona finde ʓyt ane assene ʓetiʓʓede…: untiʓeað hiʓ, and lædað to me. Ibid., Mark xi. 5. Hwæt do ʓyt þone folan untiʓende?
13[?]. K. Alis., 784 (Laud MS.). He it [sc. Bucephalus] vntyed & lete gon.
1388. Wyclif, Mark xi. 5. Thei … founden a colt tied bifor the ȝate,… and thei vntieden hym.
1530. Palsgr., 768/2. I untey,… je deslie. Untey my hosen.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, VIII. 147. His goodly steedes the Marine god … vnties.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. XCI. ii. From snare … He shall thee sure unty.
1639. T. de Gray, Expert Farrier, 236. Untye him, and give him meat.
1659. Hammond, On Ps. lx. 6. As when the master reaches out his shooe to his meanest servant, to be untyed and taken off by him.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 494. They said,… if they untied her [sc. a cow], they should see which Way she went.
1725. Pope, Odyss., IX. 208. I climbed my vessel’s lofty side; My train obeyed me, and the ship unty’d.
1794. Wordsw., Guilt & Sorrow, lxiv. They … busily … untie Her garments.
1847. Emerson, Daemonic Love, 148. Therefore comes an hour from Jove Which his ruthless will defies, And the dogs of Fate unties.
absol. 1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 193. The unlearned … use to think it a matter of greater strength … to teare asunder, than to unty.
b. To free from a confining or encircling cord, bond, etc.
c. 1450. Cov. Myst. (1922), 224. Goo forthe,… and lazare ȝe vntey, And all his bondys losyth hem asundyr.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, ci. 333. Huon came to ye fote of ye ladder, where as he founde Gerames as then not vntyed.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., II. i. 21. I prethee sister Kate, vntie my hands.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xxii. ¶ 7. He unties all the Pages of that Quarter.
1747. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, ii. 38. Untye your Cucumbers, but take care the Meat don’t come out.
1781. Cowper, Charity, 471. With slow deliberation he unties His glitt’ring purse.
1819. Shelley, Peter Bell 3rd, VI. vii. All these Reviews the Devil made Up in a parcel…. Peter … Untied them—read them.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, lv. The executioner has untied your hands.
c. In various fig. uses.
13[?]. Cast. Love (H.), 1603. Hevyn and erthe shull byn aleyde, And the foure elementes shull be unteyede.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 21. If thou be forto wyte In eny point … Wherof thi wittes ben unteid.
1565. Cooper, Linguam resoluere,… to vntie his tongue.
1586. Day, Eng. Secretary, I. (1625), 87. Before this time the like breach … was neuer seene betweene vs: but what (mischiefe) shal I now terme it … that … hath in this vilde sort, giuen meanes to vntie vs.
1605. Shaks., Macb., IV. i. 52. Though you vntye the Windes, and let them fight Against the Churches.
a. 1654. Selden, Table-T. (Arb.), 66. I cannot bind my self, for I may untye my self again.
1655. Earl Orrery, Parthen., I. VI. 131. I will vntye my Soule from that Cley which invirons it.
a. 1845. Wordsw., Eccl. Sonn., Crusaders, 10. When Heaven unties Her inmost,… tenderest harmonies.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, IV. iv. We shall be at Hebron before they untie their eyelids.
2. To undo, unfasten (a cord, knot, etc.); also transf. to relax (a hold).
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. xi. 49. He forst him to vnty One of his grasping fecte.
1602. 2nd Pt. Return Parnass., III. iv. 1378. If he will not vnty the purse stringes of his liberality.
1639. J. Taylor (Water P.), Part this Summers Trav. (Hindley, III), 17. You might have untied it [sc. a halter], that it might have serv’d another time.
a. 1718. Prior, Love Disarmed, 39. The Chain I’ll in Return unty; And freely Thou again shalt fly.
1791. Cowper, Odyssey, VIII. 339. A snare Of bands indissoluble, by no art To be untied.
1858. Trollope, Dr. Thorne, iii. The old squire or Greshamsbury, whose shoe ribbons Dr. Fillgrave would not have objected to untie.
1885. ‘Mrs. Alexander,’ Valerie’s Fate, i. She untied and removed her veil.
fig. 1581. G. Elliot, in Arber, Garner, VIII. 208. Even then (by God’s great goodness …) all their … devilish devices and practises were so broken and untied in me that [etc.].
b. fig. To solve or clear away (a difficulty). Freq. with knot in fig. sense (cf. KNOT sb.1 10).
(a) a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. xiii. The love of him commaundid him to preserve his life: which knot might well be cut, but untied it could not be.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., II. ii. 42. O time, thou must vntangle this, not I; It is too hard a knot for me t’vnty.
1643. R. Baker, Chron., Stephen, 65. A Gordian knot, which no Writer helpes me to unty.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., VI. § 32. He will endeavour to untie knots as well as tie them.
1746. Francis, trans. Hor., Sat., II. v. 56. I know the Doubles of the mazy Laws, Unty their Knots, and plead with vast Applause.
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, IV. vii. That is cutting the knot, said my father, instead of untying it.
1818. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXIII. 714. We cannot cut the knot: we must, therefore, take time to untie it.
1889. S. Walpole, Life Ld. J. Russell, II. 374. The new King tried to cut instead of untying the Gordian knot.
(b) 1611. Shaks., Cymb., V. iv. 149. ’Tis still a Dreame … Or senselesse speaking, or a speaking such As sense cannot vntye.
1649. Davenant, Love & Hon., IV. iv. 80. We must to Delphos sure t’untie these doubts … with an oracle.
1654. Jer. Taylor, Real Pres., 65. The whole party wanders in eternal intricacies, and inextricable riddles; which … themselves cannot untie.
c. fig. To dissolve (a bond, esp. of union).
(a) 1634. B. Jonson, Love’s Welcome, Wks. (1641), 282. A true love Knot will hardly be unti’d.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., IV. xlvii. 385. First, the Power of the Popes was dissolved … And so was untyed the first knot.
1671. R. MacWard, True Non-conf., 166. Unless the error be of greater importance,… it ought not to unty the bond of the unity of the Catholick Church.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 685. Profusion … unties the knot Of union.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, VI. ii. Land of my sires! what mortal hand Can e’er untie the filial band, That knits me to thy rugged strand!
1895. Daily News, 15 Nov., 7/3. If a husband got tired of his wife,… the State winked at a collusive suit by which the knot was untied.
(b) 1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. iii. 111. The amitie that wisedome knits, not folly may easily vntie. Ibid. (1610), Temp., V. i. 253. Come hither Spirit, Set Caliban and his companions free: Vntye the Spell.
a. 1683. Sidney, Disc. Govt., iii. § 15 (1698), 316. But if these obligations were untied, we may easily guess [etc.].
3. intr. To become loosened or untied.
1590. Tarlton’s Newes Purgat., 30. He threwe his armes about him with such violence, that his wide sleeue vntyed.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year, II. v. 59. Then their resolution unties like the cords of vanity or the gossamere against the violence of the Northen winde. Ibid., II. xxiii. 290. Their promises are but fair language,… and disband and unty like the air that beat upon their teeth, when [etc.].
Hence Untied ppl. a.1
1565. Cooper, s.v. Recinctus, Zona recincta, a girdle vntied.
1619. Fletcher, Knt. Malta, V. i. I am … a vessel crack’d, A Zone unti’d.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xlvii. She … had to supply the man with untied sheaves.
