Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To drive from a lair or den.
  • transitive verb To loose from a kennel.
  • transitive verb To bring to light; uncover or disclose.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To drive or force from a kennel; take out of a kennel. To rouse from secrecy or retreat.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To drive from a kennel or hole.
  • transitive verb Fig.: To discover; to disclose.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To scare out from a lair or a den.
  • verb To let (something) out of a kennel.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ kennel

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word unkennel.

Examples

  • Whereat Hugo ran from the house, crying to his grooms that they should saddle his mare and unkennel the pack, and giving the hounds a kerchief of the maid's, he swung them to the line, and so off full cry in the moonlight over the moor.

    The Seriously Deranged Writer and the Model Cars 2010

  • To him he says that, if the King's occulted guilt does not come out ( 'unkennel itself'), he (Hamlet) will look upon the apparition as a damned ghost, and (this is new) will think that his 'imaginations are as foul as Vulcan's stithy.'

    Shakspere and Montaigne Jacob Feis

  • Whereat Hugo ran from the house, crying to his grooms that they should saddle his mare and unkennel the pack, and giving the hounds a kerchief of the maid's, he swung them to the line, and so off full cry in the moonlight over the moor.

    The Hound of the Baskervilles Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1926

  • Whereat Hugo ran from the house, crying to his grooms that they should saddle his mare and unkennel the pack, and giving the hounds a kerchief of the maid's, he swung them to the line, and so off full cry in the moonlight over the moor.

    The Hound of the Baskervilles Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1926

  • Whereat Hugo ran from the house, crying to his grooms that they should saddle his mare and unkennel the pack, and giving the hounds a kerchief of the maid's, he swung them to the line, and so off full cry in the moonlight over the moor.

    The Hound of the Baskervilles Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 1926

  • Here, here, here be my keys: ascend my chambers; search, seek, find out: I’ll warrant we’ll unkennel the fox.

    Act III. Scene III. The Merry Wives of Windsor 1914

  • Whereat Hugo ran from the house, crying to his grooms that they should saddle his mare and unkennel the pack, and giving the hounds

    The Hound of the Baskervilles 1901

  • Whereat Hugo ran from the house, crying to his grooms that they should saddle his mare and unkennel the pack, and giving the hounds a kerchief of the maid's, he swung them to the line, and so off full cry in the moonlight over the moor.

    The Hound of the Baskervilles Arthur Conan Doyle 1894

  • It is hard to picture the thoughts that must have passed through Charles's mind as he read the bitter triumphant pages that told how the man he had twice pilloried and then flung into prison for life had come out again, as he puts it brutally, to "unkennel that fox," his foe.

    Stray Studies from England and Italy John Richard Greene 1860

  • "He is nowhere below, but we shall probably unkennel him in the upper story," I heard one of them say as they mounted the stairs.

    In New Granada Heroes and Patriots William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt

    Do not itself unkennel in one speech,

    It is a damned ghost that we have seen,

    And my imaginations are as foul

    As Vulcan's stithy.

    Hamlet to Horatio, Act III Scene II

    September 25, 2009