undeck

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From un- +‎ deck.

Verb

[edit]

undeck (third-person singular simple present undecks, present participle undecking, simple past and past participle undecked)

  1. (transitive) To remove ornaments from; to strip.
    • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act 4, scene 1]:
      Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself I find myself a traitor with the rest, For I have given here my soul's consent T'undeck the pompous body of a king, Made glory base and sovereignty a slave, Proud majesty a subject, state a peasant
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:
      but Eve Undeck'd save with herself , more lovely fair Than wood-nymph, or the fairest goddess feign'd Of three that in mount Ida naked strove , Stood to' entertain her guest from heav'n;
    • 1713, Thomas Parnell, An Essay on the Different Stiles of Poetry:
      Undeck'd they stand, and unadorn'd with Praise, And fail to profit while they fail to please.
    • 1896, Manchester Literary Club, “Sir Samuel Ferguson”, in Transactions, page 446:
      He toiled to make our Story stand as from Time's reverent, runic hand It came, undeck'd By fancies false, erect, alone, The monumental artic stone Of ages wreck'd.
    • 1880, Joseph Crawhall, “Sour Grapes”, in Border Notes & Mixty-maxty: Poems, page 22:
      Ruthless Time with his furrowing tread (Oh! that we mortals could bid him stay:) So chills the blood and undecks the head, That unsaucy young minxes e'en say us nay .
    • 2013, Troy Blacklaws, Blood Orange:
      Lucky Strike undecks the table, but does not dare touch my cursed china.
  2. To clear from a deck or storage area.
    • 1961, The Lumberman - Volume 88, page 35:
      It also unloads logs, decks, undecks, delivers and picks up from the peeling station and, in be- tween, puts a small log between tusks and forks and, using it as a blade, sweeps up bark and debris from the black top into a burning pit.
    • 1978, Engineering News-record - Volume 200, Part 2, page 35:
      A modern-day example: a transportability approach that lets you undeck big capacity carrier-mounted liftcranes for between-job moves.
    • 1981, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, page 798:
      However, when the loading work was subcontracted, Respondent's employees did not, as part of the loading operation, undeck the logs and deposit them in a place accessible to the subcontractor's employees for subsequent loading except, as the record shows, in very isolated instances. Thus, I find, that there was no historical frequency sufficient to be characterized as a "practice" of utilizing a composite crew for the undecking and loading of logs.
    • 2011, Rachel Neumeier, The Griffin Mage:
      Then he said, out in a rush, "Captain Geroen says he's getting reports from riverside, they say there's an awful lot of activity across the river, and Captain Geroen wants to undeck our half of the bridge, and send men to watch all the fordable parts of the river upstream and down, and muster the men.

References

[edit]