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Glite Dictionary
📽️ To unfold 🧵 To unwind
to unspool

to unspool

2 7.0
To unfold slowly, like a story or plan
  • verb
  • /ʌnˈspul/
translation icon : desarrollar
  • The last movies will unspool on Sunday evening, and then the Research Triangle will have lost one of its most significant and eclectic movie theaters.
  • unspooled a story
  • unspooling his life
  • unspool an elaborate tale

Could you kind of unspool your, you know, I guess what holding Caulfield and Catcher in the Rye calls all that David Copperfield crap?

Examples

  • Episode Two unspools in a more classic vérité style, with handheld camerawork capturing singular moments in the lives of those who visit and cherish state parks.

    Blog text (34)

  • I took notes as he unspooled a long thread of information: how until the 1960s most Amish attended public schools, but then the church fought for religious education, arguing all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1972 recognized a constitutional protection.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • As the doors close, "Bride of the Monster" starts unspooling on the screen.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • There's again a kind of cat and mouse game unspooling here with the discussions in Berkeley.

  • Still, there was always something different unspooling down the street, and even if all those movies sucked, the marquees would soon be changing again come Thursday night/Friday morning.

    Blog text (8)

  • No matter how many times you've seen La Promesse (or any of the Dardenne brothers' films, for that matter), it always unspools as if its story is unfolding before your eyes, maybe on the other side of a grim window or through a looking glass to a world that would be too horrible to witness if it weren't so perfectly told.

    Blog text (18)

  • As the movie progresses, the plot unspools in unexpected ways, keeping the audience engaged.

  • In the final chapter, the author skillfully unspools the tangled relationships between the characters.

  • During the investigation, the detective unspooled the truth behind the mysterious events one clue at a time.

Synonyms

to unfold
vsto unspool
239 3.2

Become clear over time

is used especially for stories or ordered events rather than any development
to unravel
vsto unspool
75 4.4

To find out what really happened in a confusing situation

emphasizes gradual storytelling revelation, not necessarily solving a mystery
to unfurl
vsto unspool
11 4.5

To open something rolled or folded so it lies flat

describes gradual narrative development rather than physical spreading
to unpeel
vsto unspool
1 6.8

To reveal hidden parts slowly by taking away layers

focuses on narratives gradually revealed rather than layer by layer exposure

Antonyms

to conceal
282 3.7

To hide something so others cannot see or find it

to suppress
176 4.8

To stop public protest by force or by people in power

How Gradual

to unspool
2 7.0
to unfold
239 3.2
to reveal
∞ 2.3
to unveil
109 4.1
to announce
∞ 1.5

Surface Forms

unspool infinitive
unspooled past
unspooled past participle
unspooling present participle
unspools third person singular

Morphology

unspool = spool (semi-transparent) = un + spool

Formally built from un- + spool and the morphological operation is clear.

Etymology

Unspool is also used as a vivid image: like film coming off a spool or reel, a story 'unspools' as it slowly unwinds and is revealed, so to say a plot unspools is to say its events develop little by little.