1. trans. To restore from a twisted state; to untwine. Also in fig. context.
1538. Elyot, Retexo, to vntwyste.
1587. Greene, Penelope’s Web, Wks. (Grosart), V. 151. A shift to make her work endlesse, by vntwisting as much in the night as she woue in the day.
c. 1590. L. Bryskett, Mourning Muse, 148. Which made them eftsoones feare the daies of Pirrha shold … their fatall threds vntwist.
1626. Jackson, Creed, VIII. x. § 1. The Sonne of God … began to untwist that triple cord, wherewith our first parents … were bound by Satan.
1632. Milton, L’Allegro, 143. Untwisting all the chains that ty The hidden soul of harmony.
1700. Dryden, Ovid, Pythagorean Philos., 381. Restless they soon untwist the Web they spun.
1731. Swift, Nymph going to Bed, 19. She … Untwists a wire, and from her gums A set of teeth completely comes.
1760. R. Brown, Compl. Farmer, II. 63. Hempen ropes cut small and untwisted, are beneficial [as manure] for lands.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 54. Hop plants, growing round a pole…; if you untwist any, and confine them in the contrary direction, they die.
a. 1834. Coleridge, Friend (1837), III. 213. Cutting the knot which it cannot untwist.
1860. Geo. Eliot, Mill on Fl., III. vi. Bob had drawn out … [and began] to untwist his canvas bag.
transf. 1834. Coleridge, Table-t. (1835), II. 295. A serpent … makes a fulcrum of its own body, and seems for ever twisting and untwisting its own strength.
b. fig. and in fig. context. To dissolve, break up, decompose.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VIII. vii. § 39. 408. The English supposing the Normans to have fled,… began in eager pursuit carelesly to vntwist and display their ranckes.
1640. Sir J. Wray, Speech, in Rushworth, Hist. Coll. (1692), I. 40. The Divisions of Great Britain have half untwisted our Long Union.
a. 1644. Quarles, Hieroglyphikes, i. 21. Whose errour-chacing beams … untwist The clouds of ignorance.
1653. Jer. Taylor, Serm. Year, I. xiii. 168. The faith of very many men, seems a duty so weak…, is so often untwisted by violence, or ravel’d and intangled in weak discourses.
1727. Thomson, To Mem. Newton, 98. Ev’n light itself … Shone undiscover’d, till his brighter mind Untwisted all the shining robe of day.
1751. Warburton, Pope’s Wks., I. 105, note. The prismatic glass … untwisting, by its obliquities, those threads of light.
1896. A. Austin, England’s Darling, I. i. The outlandish dogs … Untwisting what he bound, and to their will Enserfing all.
† 2. To disentangle by explanation or exposition; to expound, make plain. Obs.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades, 5/2. This is the brief summe of the holy fathers tradition, whiche it is best to vntwist more largely.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. Magnif., 1314. Hee … at pleasure frees Such doubts, as … might have taskt, t’untwist, The Brachman, Druide, and Gymnosophist.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Woman Pleas’d, V. i. Tis a Witch sure, And by her means he came to untwist this Riddle.
1660. Jer. Taylor, Worthy Commun., Introd. 8. The Holy Communion … is too much untwisted and nicely handled by the writings of the Doctors.
1773. Toplady, in Boswell, Johnson, 7 May. You have untwisted this difficult subject with great dexterity.
3. To loosen, detach, or set free, by untwining. Also fig.
1637. S. Marmion, Cupid & Psyche, I. iii. 394. He took her wrist, And wrung it hard, and did her hands untwist.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 167. A raging storme … separated us; insomuch as we had hardly recovered our companies, had not the … jingling of the Cammells bells revoked, yea untwisted us out of these Caspian or Zagrian straits.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., iv. 86. Our souls,… untwisting themselves from all corporeal complications.
1692. Dryden, Don Sebastian, III. i. Alm. How can we better dye than close embrac’d, Sucking each others Souls while we expire?… Emp. No I’ll untwist you: I have occasion for your stay on Earth.
4. intr. To pass out of a twisted condition; to become untwined.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. xviii. 156. I will well that ye wist, The thred is spon, that neuer shall vntwist.
a. 1703. Wallis, in Greenwood, Eng. Gram. (1711), 282. If one of the twines of the twist do untwist, The twine that untwisteth, untwisteth the twist.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Hygrometer, The Cord or Gut twisting and untwisting … will indicate the Change of Moisture.
1786. Bonnycastle, Astronomy, xi. 184. As the thread untwists, the globe … will turn round its axis.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 435. Either of the two palls x and y may … prevent the strands from untwisting.
1897. Grant Allen, Type-writer Girl, i. There … you shall see spring buds untwisting.
fig. 1653. Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year, I. ii. 22. His purposes untwist as easily as the rude conjuncture of uncombining cables.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 67. Sometimes the words naturally fall asunder:… sometimes they untwist.
Hence Untwist ppl. a., = UNTWISTED ppl. a.2
1607. Marston, What you will, II. i. My spirit is untwist; My heart is raveld out in discontents.
1647. N. Ward, Simple Cobler, 30. When States dishelv’d [= dishevelled] are, and lawes untwist, Wise men keep their tongues.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Serm. for Year, II. xv. 190. By little and little our strongest resolutions be untwist, and crack in sunder.
