v. (UN-2 3. Cf. Du. onthangen.)
1. trans. To take down from a hanging position.
1399. Langl., Rich. Redeles, III. 293. For ho so þus leued his lyff to the ende … Myȝte seie þat he sawe … Þat heuene were vnhonge out of þe hookis.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, I. cxxiv. (1869), 66. From thennes the scauberk she vnheeng and brouhte it.
c. 1532. Du Wes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 941. To unhange, despendre.
1598. Florio, Disimpiccare, to vnhang.
1614. W. Browne, Sheph. Pipe, I. B 2 b. Wicked Swaines, that beare me spight,… Of my fold will draw the pegges,… Or vnhang my Weathers bell.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Trav., Wks. III. 82/1. I pray the let vs make hast, and put the Waggon vnder the Gibbet, to see if we can vnhang and saue him.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack, v. They unhanged a small copper, and brought it off.
1769. Lloyd’s Even. Post, Sept.–Oct., 319/2. A Butcher’s wife … was endeavouring to unhang a joint of meat.
1856. Smetham, in Beardmore, Smetham (1906), 26. Unhanging a Turner from the wall of a distant room, he brought it to the table.
1888. A. Nutt, Holy Grail, 40. No knight should with impunity unhang the shield till Galahad should come.
fig. 1616. Hieron, Wks., II. 24. It was not inough … for our Sauiour to take them off, & (as it were) to vnhang them from the world, unlesse He did also fixe them other-where.
b. Naut. To remove (a rudder) from its fastening.
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 552. Their cables do oftentimes breake, and their ruthers are vnhanged,… by reason the shippes doe ride but in little water.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 49. They were forced to unhang the Rudder, and new hang it again.
1772–84. Cook’s Voy. (1790), III. 796. We … found the Tamar lying between the island and the main, having unhung her rudder.
1799. Naval Chron., II. 568. The rudder of the Isis was unhung.
c. To divest of hangings. rare–0.
1719. Boyer, Dict. Royal, II. To Unhang a Room, détendre la Tapisserie d’une Chambre.
2. To undo the hanging of (a person).
1829. Southey, Pilgrim to Compostella, III. 54. So, with all honours that might be, They gently unhang’d Pierre.
1837. Hawthorne, Twice-told T. (1851), I. vii. 134. And hanging the nigger wouldn’t unhang the old gentleman!
