unfurl

English

WOTD – 28 August 2009

Etymology

From un- +‎ furl.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈfəːl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈfɝl/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)l

Verb

unfurl (third-person singular simple present unfurls, present participle unfurling, simple past and past participle unfurled)

1. To unroll or release something that had been rolled up, typically a sail or a flag.

   Synonym: (obsolete) splay

   They unfurled the flag at the start of the festival.

   • 1892, Joaquin Miller, Columbus :

     BEHIND him lay the gray Azores, / Behind the Gates of Hercules; / Before him not the ghost of shores, / Before him only shoreless seas. // The good mate said: “Now must we pray, / For lo! the very stars are gone. / Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?” / “Why, say, ‘Sail on! sail on! and on!’”
     “My men grow mutinous day by day; / My men grow ghastly wan and weak.” / The stout mate thought of home; a spray / Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek. // “What shall I say, brave Admiral, say, / If we sight naught but seas at dawn?” / “Why, you shall say at break of day, / ‘Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!’”
     They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, / Until at last the blanched mate said: / “Why, now not even God would know / Should I and all my men fall dead. // These very winds forget their way, / For God from these dread seas is gone. / Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say”— / He said: “Sail on! sail on! and on!”
     They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: / “This mad sea shows his teeth to-night. / He curls his lip, he lies in wait, / With lifted teeth, as if to bite! // Brave Admiral, say but one good word: / What shall we do when hope is gone?” / The words leapt like a leaping sword: / “Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!”
     Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck, / And peered through darkness. Ah, that night / Of all dark nights! And then a speck— / A light! A light! A light! A light! // It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! / It grew to be Time’s burst of dawn. / He gained a world; he gave that world / Its grandest lesson: “On! sail on!”

2. (figurative) To roll out or debut anything.

   When will we be unfurling the new feature?

   • 2024 October 23, Jacob Oller, “Clay weepy Memoir Of A Snail crawls through a gauntlet of misery”, in AV Club‎^[1]:

     Befitting the gray-brown clothes, bagged eyes, and licorice hair of its figures, Memoir Of A Snail unfurls the spiraling tale of two orphans persevering on Australia’s fringes.

3. (intransitive) To open up by unrolling.
4. (intransitive, figurative) To turn out or unfold; to evolve; to progress.

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “to unroll or release”): furl, roll

Translations

to unroll or release

• Bulgarian: разгъвам (bg) (razgǎvam), развявам (bg) (razvjavam)
• Dutch: ontvouwen (nl), ontrollen (nl), afrollen (nl), uitrollen (nl)
• Esperanto: malvolvi
• Finnish: aukaista (fi), avata (fi)
• French: déployer (fr), dérouler (fr)
• Galician: despregar
• German: entfalten (de), entrollen (de), aufrollen (de)
• Irish: scaoil
• Italian: srotolare (it), spiegare (it)
• Latin: explicō
• Maori: tākiri
• Norwegian: folde ut, rulle ut
• Polish: rozwinąć (pl), rozwijać (pl)
• Portuguese: desfraldar (pt)
• Romanian: desfășura (ro)
• Russian: развёртывать (ru) (razvjórtyvatʹ), развора́чивать (ru) (razvoráčivatʹ)
• Spanish: desplegar (es), lagar (es)
• Swedish: veckla ut

to roll out or debut

• Finnish: esitellä (fi), julkistaa (fi)
• Hebrew: להוציא לאור m, לשחרר

to turn out or unfold

• Hebrew: לגלות (le'galot)

Anagrams

• urnful