Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To release from or as if from moorings.
  • intransitive verb Nautical To release (a ship) from all but one anchor.
  • intransitive verb To cast off moorings.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Nautical, to bring to the state of riding with a single anchor, after having been moored by two or more cables.
  • To loose from anchorage or from moorings, literally or figuratively.
  • To loose from moorings; weigh anchor.

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

  • transitive verb To cause to ride with one anchor less than before, after having been moored by two or more anchors.
  • transitive verb To loose from anchorage. See moor, v. t.
  • intransitive verb To weigh anchor.

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

  • verb transitive To unfix or unsecure (a moored boat).

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

un- +‎ moor

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Examples

  • The essential point, he said, is to "unmoor" criticism.

    Original Short Stories — Volume 01 Guy de Maupassant 1871

  • The essential point, he said, is to "unmoor" criticism.

    Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant Guy de Maupassant 1871

  • The essential point, he said, is to "unmoor" criticism.

    Une Vie, a Piece of String and Other Stories Guy de Maupassant 1871

  • It is an actual example of "realism" unencumbered and applied with great rigor, and it is likely to unmoor the assumptions of those readers tied to a more conventionalized, less ascetic understanding of the role of "realistic" dialogue.

    Narrative Strategies 2009

  • One of the first effects of this hyper-democratization of data was to unmoor information from the context required to understand it.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

  • He's right, in the sense that the American Right began to unmoor itself from reality long before the Tea Party, or even Barack Obama's nomination.

    Carl Pope: The Party of Crazy Carl Pope 2011

  • One of the first effects of this hyper-democratization of data was to unmoor information from the context required to understand it.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

  • I would prefer this to a situation in which the EPA or the judiciary decides to unmoor themselves from Congress and start making environmental law sua sponte.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Suing EPA Over Gulf Cleanup 2010

  • One of the first effects of this hyper-democratization of data was to unmoor information from the context required to understand it.

    The Panic Virus Seth Mnookin 2011

  • Hurricane Irene's strong winds unmoor a boat and cause flooding as the storm makes landfall in North Carolina.

    Widespread Power Outages Continue Cassandra Sweet 2011

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