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Glite Dictionary
to unarm

to unarm

1 7.7
To take weapons away from a person so they cannot attack
  • verb
  • /ʌnˈɑrm/
translation icon : desarmar
  • He decided to unarm the intruder to prevent any harm.

Examples

  • In an effort to promote peace, the general urged the troops to unarm immediately.

  • All you young 'uns who ain't willing to die today, I suggest you unarm yourselves and get.

    Forsaken (2015)

  • The soldiers were ordered to unarm before entering the peace talks.

Synonyms

to disarm
vsto unarm
93 3.9

To take weapons from a person or group so they cannot use them

take weapons away while stressing loss of means to attack

Antonyms

to arm
119 3.7

To give weapons to people or prepare for fighting

How Armed

to rearm
7 6.8
to unarm
1 7.7
to disarm
93 3.9

Surface Forms

unarm infinitive
unarmed past
unarmed past participle
unarming present participle
unarms third person singular

Morphology

unarm = arm (transparent) = un + arm

Formed by the productive verb-prefix 'un-' meaning reversal or removal plus the verb 'arm', so the meaning 'to remove weapons' is directly derivable.

Etymology

The word unarm begins with un- meaning 'remove', like in 'undo', and the part arm meaning 'weapon' or 'to give a weapon'. So to unarm someone is to take their weapons away and make them unable to attack.