Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to unmake

to unmake

5 7.5
To undo or destroy something created earlier
  • verb
  • /ʌnˈmeɪk/
translation icon : deshacer
  • I've lost my right to live but I can't unmake what's happened even if I wish it so.
  • make and unmake

One who could silence them could unmake the world.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • Normal legislation made Kennedy, and normal legislation can unmake it, too.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Well, if I made 'em, I can unmake 'em.

    Mr. Destiny (1990)

  • This is the power that had made you what you are now, and would and would unmake you for its own design.

  • So how about we unmake them?

    Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist (2023)

  • I made you, and I can unmake you.

    Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996)

  • I cannot stop it unless I wish to unmake the world as it is.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • "If you don't save me from this monster, he'll unmake me, and unmake you as well."

    Fiction book (1992)

  • A man couldn't unmake his choices, but he could always make new ones.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • How to unmake what I've made, the bodies I've made.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • You can unmake a mistake by admitting it and trying to fix it.

Synonyms

to undo
vsto unmake
102 2.6

Cancel the effect of an action or decision

focuses on destroying or removing a created object rather than affecting decisions

Antonyms

to make
∞ 1.0

To create something by putting parts together

How Reversed

to obliterate
71 7.5
to destroy
∞ 1.0
to unmake
5 7.5
to reverse
329 3.2
to undo
102 2.6

Surface Forms

unmake infinitive
unmaking present participle
unmakes third person singular
unmade past
unmade past participle

Morphology

unmake = make (transparent) = un + make

The productive negation prefix 'un-' attaches to the verb 'make' to indicate reversing or undoing the action, which is clear to a B1 learner.

Etymology

Unmake has the un- part meaning 'reverse' or 'not' and the verb make meaning 'to create'. So to unmake something is to 'undo' or destroy what was made, which is why we use it for plans, reputations, or peace that are being reversed.