v. [UN-2 4 b.]
1. trans. To detach from a hook; to disengage or unfasten in this way. Also refl.
1611. Cotgr., Desaccrocher, to vnhooke.
1662. J. Bargrave, Pope Alex. VII., etc. (1867), 136. To break a fall, they will hang by the horns, and, when they have taken breath, they unhook themselves and take another leap.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 132. If the wind should blow against the back sides of the said sails … the said bars or rods will be unhooked and set at liberty.
1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., 147. In an instant she had unhooked the heavy chain.
1878. T. Hardy, Ret. Native, V. viii. Venn unhooked the lantern and leaped down.
1892. [see UNHOOKER].
fig. 1640. C. Harvey, Synagogue, Ch.-gate, iii. Unhook’d from him, we quickly turn aside.
1669. Barrow, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 70. My mind being indeed unhooked from these things.
1672. Marvell, Reh. Transp., I. 324. Striving to unhook himself hence, p. 152 of his Second Book, swallows it deeper.
2. To take out the hooks of (a dress). Also with personal object.
1840. Cockton, Val. Vox, xiii. The gentlemen began now to unbutton their waistcoats, and the ladies to unhook their dresses behind, in order to enjoy another small glass of gin without any unpleasant sensation of satiety.
1898. Edith Nesbit, in Longm. Mag., XXXII. Aug., 366. She … remarked that she had caught a cold somehow, and I must have my frock unhooked and be tried on. I submitted silently to be unhooked, but I knew as well as she did that she had been crying.
3. To disengage from a curved position.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., II. i. As she said it, she unhooked her arm.
Hence Unhooker.
1892. Labour Commission Gloss., Unhookers, old men or boys who stand on the plank connecting a ship with the dock and unhook the coal when it is in a stable position on the back of the men who carry it.
