Unyoke

v. [OE. unʓeocian (UN-² 4 b). Cf. older Du. ontjocken, Du. ontjukken, MHG. and G. entjochen.]

  1.  trans. To loose (a draught-animal, etc.) from the yoke; to free from harness.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Gram., xlvii. (Z.), 277. Disiungo, ic ungeociʓe oððe totwæme.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xiv. (Bodl. MS.) Þan þei vnȝoke hem and bringe hem to þe stalle.

1565.  Cooper, Thesaurus, Bouem disiunctum curare, an oxe vnyoked.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. ii. 103. Our Army is dispers’d: Like youthfull Steeres, vnyoak’d, they tooke their course East, West, North, South.

1613.  Heywood, Brazen Age, II. D 3. My swannes I haue vnyoakt.

1628.  May, Virg. Georg., III. 98. The weeping Plowman tother Oxe alone Vnyokes.

1681.  D’Urfey, Progr. Honesty, i. The Beasts unyok’d from Teams, Ran lowing to the distant Mead.

1708.  J. Philips, Cyder, II. 38. Soon as the Hind, fatigu’d, Unyokes his Team.

1720.  Pope, Iliad, XXIII. 596. The chief himself unyokes the panting steeds.

1843.  Bethune, Sc. Fireside Stor., 148. While the coachman was preparing to unyoke his cattle.

1870.  Bryant, Iliad, VIII. I. 262. Unyoke the steeds … And set their food before them.

  refl.  1832.  Ht. Martineau, Ella of Gar., ii. 18. The girls of the family unyoked themselves from the harrow which they were drawing over the … sandy soil.

  † b.  (See YOKE sb. 2, v. 3.) Obs.

1573.  [see sense 4 a].

a. 1589.  Mascall, Govt. Cattle (1596), 274. Some … vse to ring them [sc. hogs] at Michaelmas…; they doe vnyoake them soone after Michaelmas.

  c.  To disconnect (the plough) from a draught-animal. Also in fig. context.

1821.  Scott, Pirate, v. It’s a finished field with me—I must unyoke the pleugh, and lie down to wait for the deadthraw.

  2.  fig. To liberate, release, deliver from oppression, etc. Also refl.

1387.  Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), V. 367. Þo was … Italy unȝoked and delyvered of þe ȝokke of Constantynnoble.

1593.  B. Barnes, Poems (Grosart), 3. So while shee sleightly gloas’d, with her new pray, Mine hartes eye … Vnyoak’t himselfe, & closely scap’t away.

1638.  N. Whiting, Albino & Bellama, 5. When British Isles … From sad oppression had unyok’d their necks.

1641.  Milton, Ch. Govt., II. 61. The property of Truth is,… to unyoke and set free the minds and spirits of a Nation.

1687.  Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. s.v., To unyoke himself out of Bondage, or Slavery. [Hence in Phillips (1706).]

  absol. (for refl.).  1606.  Warner, Alb. Eng., XV. xcviii. 388. Too aduantagiously from out our Rubrick they vnyoke, And Canons old and new by them are, too securely, broke.

  3.  To disconnect, unlink, disjoin. Also fig.

1595.  Shaks., John, III. i. 241. And shall these hands,… So newly ioin’d in loue,… Vnyoke this seysure, and this kinde regreete?

1812.  H. & J. Smith, Rej. Addr., Arch. Atoms, 154. The milkman … With sudden sink unyokes the clinking pail.

1862.  Trollope, N. America, I. 109. At the rapids the large rafts are, as it were, unyoked, and divided into small portions.

  4.  a. absol. To remove the yoke from an animal.

1573.  Tusser, Husb. (1878), 32. Let hogs be roong, both old and yoong. No mast vpon oke, no longer vnyoke.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 593. When thou [sc. the husbandman] doest unyoke and give over thy daies worke.

1612.  Drayton, Poly-olb., I. 533. Here I’ll unyoke awhile, and turn my steeds to meat.

1794.  Jas. Donaldson, View Agric. Carse of Gowrie, 24. The ploughmen … are in the stable by five o’clock, and unyoking about ten, are employed in cutting grass.

  fig.  1610.  Fletcher, Faithf. Sheph., I. i. Ever be thy honour spoke, From that place the morn is broke, To that place Day doth unyoke.

1667.  Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp. (ed. 4), II. 310. It is … but reason such an anger should unyoke, and goe to bed with the Sun.

  b.  fig. To cease from labor, etc.; to give over work.

1594.  Nashe, Terrors of Night, C iij b. To nothing more aptly can I compare the working of our braines after we haue vnyoakt and gone to bed.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., V. i. 59. Who builds stronger then a Mason, a Shipwright, or a Carpenter? Clown. I, tell me that, and vnyoake.

1889.  Skrine, Mem. Thring, 225. I am hastening to unyoke. But I must not do so till I account for something still left unsaid.

  Hence Unyoking vbl. sb.

1677.  Miége, II., s.v., An unyoaking, or Unyoking.

1835.  Thirlwall, Greece, I. 221. The unyoking of the oxen.