1. trans. To free from the binding or adhesive effect of glue; to detach or make loose in this way.
1548. Elyot, Reglutino,… to vnglewe.
1598. Florio, Sgommare, to vngum, to vnplaister, to vnglue.
1686. Aglionby, Painting Illustr., i. 29. Being Vexed at the Suns ungluing some Pictures of his.
1703. R. Neve, City & C. Purchaser, 277. To prevent … Brick-walls from Ungluing the Joynts of the Pannels.
1718. Ozell, trans. Tournefort’s Voy., I. 130. Their Strings or Filaments separate … in parcels, as if they had been glued together at first, and now were unglued.
1859. Morley, Mem. Bartholomew Fair, i. 12. There was a young man … whose head stuck to his left hand. He was unglued at St. Bartholomew’s establishment.
1872. T. Hardy, Under Greenw. Tree, I. v. That there instrument [a fiddle] will be unglued and spoilt in ten minutes.
b. transf. To open (the eyes) after sleep.
1606. Dekker, Seuen Deadly Sinnes, Wks. (Grosart), II. 31. Another … arriu’de at one of the Gates, before any Porters eyes were vnglewd.
1682. N. O., Boileau’s Lutrin, IV. 207. But yet the Noise that had unglew’d their eyes Could not perswade the Sluggish Chanons rise.
1728. Swift, Jrnl. of Mod. Lady, 42. She stretches, gapes, unglues her eyes, And asks if it be time to rise.
c. fig. To detach, separate, dissolve.
1619. Hieron, Wks., I. 641. Happy were it for vs if the meditation of this point … were able to vnglue and vntwist our affections, which are so neerely tyed vnto it.
1649. Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., IV. ii. (1654), 307. Heresie and Infidelitie, which are enough to unglew all naturall and civill relations betwixt father and son.
1675. Hobbes, Odyssey (1677), 130. Your death…, for which Age shall prepare you, and your soul unglew Insensibly.
1831. Syd. Smith, in Lady Holland, Mem. (1855), II. 314. Where is it to end? Are all political agglutinations to be unglued?
1897. Hall Caine, Christian, IV. iii. Unless we unglue ourselves from the vanities which imperil our existence.
2. intr. To lose cohesion; to become detached.
1693. Evelyn, De la Quint. Compl. Gard., II. 112. Otherwise they are apt to unglue, that is, to separate cleverly from the part where they are Graffed, in great Storms or Wind.
1703. R. Neve, City & C. Purchaser, 29. When ever the Joints shall happen to unglue.
Hence Ungluing vbl. sb.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Desengrudamiento, vngluing.
1623. Cockeram, I. Reglutination, an vngluing.
1703. R. Neve, City & C. Purchaser, 277. Yet neither of these ways will prevent their ungluing in some Houses.
