unmoor

verb

un·​moor ˌən-ˈmu̇r How to pronounce unmoor (audio)
unmoored; unmooring; unmoors

transitive verb

: to loosen from or as if from moorings

intransitive verb

: to cast off moorings

Examples of unmoor in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Events unmoor themselves from context. Elizabeth Nelson, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2021 From the death of her father at 13 to her mother's refusal to take in Owusu and her sister afterward, the author navigates hardships and searches for identity, eventually pulling herself back together following a breakdown that threatens to unmoor her. Toni Fitzgerald, Forbes, 8 June 2021 The film should be highly disturbing, but the dramatic tension never gels, despite composer Christopher Stacey’s efforts to unmoor us by injecting discordant strings beneath mundane scenes. Peter Debruge, Variety, 18 Feb. 2023 To accommodate Campos’s cavalry, P.S.G. has had to unmoor Leandro Paredes, Ander Herrera, Georginio Wijnaldum, Idrissa Gueye, Julian Draxler, Ángel Di Maria and Xavi Simons this summer, too. Rory Smith, New York Times, 2 Sep. 2022 By Big Tech standards, Netflix has remained a strongly independent company over its 25-year run, spurning big acquisitions and splashy deals that could unmoor its roots. Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 14 July 2022 The German Greens, now part of the country’s ruling coalition, lashed out at previous governments for not working faster to unmoor Germany’s economy from Russian fossil fuels. Washington Post, 21 Apr. 2022 When announced at Jackson Hole in August, the goal of the Fed’s new doctrine was actually to unmoor inflation expectations, which were purportedly running too low for too long. Kevin Warsh, WSJ, 7 June 2021 But the overarching ambitions laid out by Sims-Fewer and Mancinelli, who’ve collaborated before on a handful of notable short films, unmoor the writer-directors from the heart of their subject. K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone, 27 Mar. 2021

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unmoor.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Time Traveler
The first known use of unmoor was in the 15th century

Dictionary Entries Near unmoor

Cite this Entry

“Unmoor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unmoor. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

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