Undraw

v. [UN-² 3.]

  † 1.  trans. To draw out, withdraw. Obs.

c. 1400.  Trevisa’s Higden (Rolls), V. 373. Rosamunda … bonde so faste þe kynges swerd … þat it myȝte not be undrawe [MS. γ. y-drawe] out of þe scaberke.

  2.  To draw back (esp. a curtain); to unfasten by pulling.

1677.  Miége, II. To Undraw the curtains, ouvrir les rideaux.

1744.  Young, Nt. Th., VII. 813. Death’s inexorable hand Draws the dark curtain close; undrawn no more. Ibid., 1107. Angels undrew the curtain of the throne.

1791.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, iv. The door was held by two strong bolts. Having undrawn these, it disclosed a flight of steps.

1839.  Lady Lytton, Cheveley (ed. 3), III. iii. 71. He undrew the window curtain, and sat in the window.

1872.  J. L. Sanford, Estimates Eng. Kings, Jas. I., 324. In the cause of the Palatine … the purse-strings of the English people would have been willingly undrawn.

  3.  intr. To move back on being pulled.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxiii. Emily presently heard … the heavy chain fall, and the bolts undraw of a small postern door.

1845.  Browning, How they brought the News, 3. ‘Good speed!’ cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew.

  Hence Undrawing vbl. sb.

1797.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, xix. She distinguished the undrawing of iron bars.