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Glite Dictionary
🤸 To stretch 🛠️ To prepare equipment
to unlimber

to unlimber

9.2
To make a gun or other weapon ready to fire
  • verb
  • /ʌnˈlɪmbər/
  • Jargon
translation icon : preparar
  • "We go with the buddy system," Dan said as he unlimbered the makeshift shovel he had carried with him.
  • unlimbered his two guns

Examples

  • The soldiers rushed to unlimber the artillery and prepare for the incoming attack.

  • Unlimber the Napoleon and the rest to form a square about it, at parade rest.

    Fiction book (1990)

  •   Unlimber the guns!

    Cheyenne Autumn (1964)

  • Before the battle began, the commander ordered the crew to unlimber the cannons and make them ready for firing.

  • He swiftly unlimbered the heavy weapons, ensuring they were positioned for defense.

Antonyms

to restrain
86 4.6

Hold a person or thing so it cannot move freely

How Ready

to deploy
371 5.6
to activate
715 3.6
to ready
41 1.0
to unlimber
  • Jargon
9.2
to unfasten
5 3.4

Surface Forms

unlimber infinitive
unlimbered past
unlimbered past participle
unlimbering present participle
unlimbers third person singular

Morphology

unlimber = limber (opaque) = un + limber

Although morphologically un- + limber is correct, the noun 'limber' (artillery cart) is specialized and unknown to many learners, so the resulting meaning is not derivable by an average B1 learner.

Etymology

Unlimber comes from the noun limber, the two-wheeled cart that carried a cannon, and to unlimber meant to take the gun off that cart and make it 'ready to fire'. That's why unlimber now means to prepare equipment or weapons by removing restraints and getting them ready for action.