unkennel

unkennel

English

Etymology

un- +‎ kennel

Verb

unkennel (third-person singular simple present unkennels, present participle unkenneling or unkennelling, simple past and past participle unkenneled or unkennelled)

1. (transitive) To scare out from a lair or a den.
2. (transitive) To let (dogs) out of a kennel.
3. (figuratively, transitive, intransitive) To reveal, uncover or unfold.
   • c. 1599-1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III scene ii:

     Hamlet:

     […] There is a play to-night before the king;

     One scene of it comes near the circumstance

     Which I have told thee of my father's death:

     I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,

     Even with the very comment of thy soul

     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. Give him heedful note;

     For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,

     And after we will both our judgments join

     In censure of his seeming.