v. [UN-2 3.]
1. trans. To undo, unfasten, or detach, by the removal of rivets.
1591. Harington, Orl. Fur., XLV. lxxii. No more the damsels force did now preuayle To pierce a plate, or to vnriuet nayle.
1627. Drayton, Agincourt, 46. Their Curates are vnriuetted with blowes.
1631. Celestina, XVIII. 181. Who hewes, and unriviteth the finest naile but it [sc. the sword]?
1755. T. H. Croker, Orl. Fur., XXXI. xxi. While from their shields immense the sides they tear, Armour unrivetted, and mail unbound.
1758. Goldsm., Mem. Protestant (1895), II. 83. At nine o’Clock … our Chains were again unrivetted.
1863. Conington, Hor., Odes, III. v. 18. Should aught but death the prisoner’s chain Unrivet.
1885. Law Rep., 15 Q.B.D. 360. The belts … could be removed from the shafting altogether by being unrivetted or unlaced.
2. fig. To undo, loosen, relax, detach, etc.
1620–51. I. Jones, Stone-Heng (1725), 13. He … sought to be … revenged on the British Nobility, who had wholly unrivetted his Designs.
1665. Brathwait, Comment Two Tales (1901), 78. Some … unriveted the very Secrets of their own Brests, and told him what they most desired.
1906. Baynard, in Floyer, Hot & Cold Bath., II. 199. Nothing is harder than to unrivet a wrong Notion.
1803. Scott, Lett., in Lockhart (1837), I. xi. 378. We sincerely hope Mrs. Ellis and you will unrivet yourselves from your forest.
1853. Miss E. S. Sheppard, Ch. Auchester, III. 158. Before I had spoken or even unriveted my gaze.
Hence Unrivetting vbl. sb.
1611. Cotgr., Desrivement, an vnriuetting.
a. 1662. Heylyn, Laud (1668), 370. By which he screwed himself so far into his Majesties good opinion, that whosoever undertook the unrivetting of him, made him faster in it.
1885. W. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), II. 134. Only the complete unriveting of the chain will really free us.
