Unseal

v. [UN-² 3, 4. Cf. MDu. ontsegelen, (Du. -zegelen), OHG. intsigilan (MHG. entsigelen, G. -siegeln).]

  1.  trans. To remove a seal from, to break the seal of (a letter, etc.).

c. 1425.  Seven Sag. (P.), 1054. His emys bokes he vnselde.

c. 1425.  Audelay, XI Pains Hell, 179. Þe angel … lad him to þe blak pit þo, With vij-selys was selid treuly…. Anon he vnselid þe pit þore.

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., V. i. 275. I haue better newes in store for you Then you expect: vnseale this letter soone.

1666.  in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 23. He … resolved to unseale the bags.

1693.  Dryden, Persius, VI. 37. Nor yet [will I] unseal the Dregs of Wine that stink Of Cask.

1746.  Francis, trans. Horace, Epist., I. vii. 12. The long Lawyer’s Plea unseals our Wills.

1791.  Cowper, Odyss., III. 495. Charging high the cup With wine of richest sort, which she … First broach’d, unsealing the delicious juice.

1818.  Coleridge, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), I. Introd. 33. Henceforward the book is unsealed for him; the depth is opened.

1851.  Longf., Gold. Leg., I. Court-yard. Then was the family tomb unsealed.

1884.  Cassell’s Fam. Mag., March, 203/1. The oven is then unsealed, and the coke withdrawn.

  fig.  1830.  Mrs. Hemans, Songs Affec., Spirit’s Return, i. This long-shut heart for thee shall be unseal’d.

  2.  fig. a. To free from some constraining influence; to allow free action to.

1589.  Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 59. She ought to shut vp her dores, and solemnize continuall night, till her husband, her sunne, making a happie return, vnsealeth her silence.

1652.  Benlowes, Theoph., I. lxxxviii. Renew my heart, direct my tongue, unseal My hand.

1826.  Mrs. Hemans, Forest Sanctuary, II. xxx. When stars … are shining, How their soft glance unseals each thought of thee!

1847.  Emerson, Compensation, ii. And why when mirth unseals all tongues Should mine alone be dumb?

  b.  To free from the condition (or necessity) of remaining closed. (Cf. SEAL v.¹ 6 b.)

  With reference to the eyes (b) probably in part replacing UNSEEL v.

  (a)  a. 1586.  Sidney, Arcadia, I. ii. I pray you (said Musidorus, then first unsealing his long silent lips) what countries be these?

1621.  Quarles, Div. Poems, Esther, iii. Memucan … Vnseal’d his serious lips, and thus bespake.

1815.  Scott, Guy M., xli. Speaking as if his utmost efforts were unable to unseal his lips beyond the width of a quarter of an inch.

1852.  Merivale, Rom. Emp. (ed. 2), iii. I. 129. Cicero’s mouth was unsealed.

1884.  Manch. Exam., 24 Nov., 5/2. Gladstone … is therefore extremely anxious that his lips should … be unsealed.

  (b)  1652.  Benlowes, Theoph., XI. xxx. Still to have toting waits unseal thine eyes.

1700.  Dryden, Ovid’s Met., Ceyx & Alcyone, 303. The God disturb’d with this new Glare of Light…, unseal’d his Sight.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., XV. 8. In sleep profound the Son of Nestor lies; Not thine, Ulysses! Care unseal’d his eyes.

1855.  Singleton, Virgil, I. 364. Others ’neath rueful Tartarus he sends; Grants slumbers, and withdraws [them], and the eyes At death unseals.

1863.  Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xiii. 333. The discovery of that patron’s baseness … acts like a talisman to unseal his eyes.

  3.  To disclose, reveal.

1640.  Fletcher, etc., Coronation, II. i. If this preserve thee not, I must unseal Another mistery.

1871.  B. Taylor, Faust (1875), II. II. iii. 147. He the future hath unsealed.

  Hence Unsealer; Unsealing vbl. sb.

1683.  Jane Lead, Revelation (title-p.), An Essay towards the Unsealing, Opening and Discovering The Seven Seals.

1844.  Lowell, Leg. Brittany, II. xxii. Remembering when he stood Not fallen yet, the unsealer of her heart.

1895.  W. Watson, Hymn to Sea, i. While, with throes, with raptures, with loosing of bonds, with unsealings,—Youth … wakes like a wondering rose.