Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To make ready for action.
- intransitive verb To detach (a gun or caisson) from its limber.
- intransitive verb To prepare something for action.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To detach the limbers from; take off the limbers of: as, to
unlimber guns. - To detach the limbers from the guns.
- Not limber; not flexible; not yielding.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb (Mil.) To detach the limber from.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb obsolete To
deploy an artillery piece for firing (ie, to detach it from itslimber ). - verb by extension To
clumsily put intoemploy a large weapon or object.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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And while Bill or Jerry or Tom is beginning to unlimber his thinking and speaking apparatus, I suggest that he join us in the drink.
Chapter 13 2010
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Wouldn't it be easier if I could build a mini Lego skyscraper ready to support my unlimber limbs?
Wishing For Limber Limbs Patrizia Chen 2010
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If the U.S. and its running dog lackey South Korea hold the naval exercises they plan, the North says, then Pyongyang will unlimber their three nukes and declare war upon the Imperialists, and woe to them for awakening the sleeping tiger!
Saber Rattling Steve Perry 2010
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If the U.S. and its running dog lackey South Korea hold the naval exercises they plan, the North says, then Pyongyang will unlimber their three nukes and declare war upon the Imperialists, and woe to them for awakening the sleeping tiger!
Archive 2010-07-01 Steve Perry 2010
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There was a long moment in which I held my breath in sudden excitement - for J.B. didn't know what he was dealing with, the blinding speed with which Joe could unlimber and fire ... suppose he blew the old man to blazes, we might win clear yet, arrange a surrender - no, Joe himself would never allow that, he'd likely try to shoot his way clear ...
THE NUMBERS 2010
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Wouldn't it be easier if I could build a mini Lego skyscraper ready to support my unlimber limbs?
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I was wondering when these idiots were going to unlimber that big argument-winner.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Newsweek promotes Palin for President 2009
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We need to unlimber the idle land and find a way to give farmers the education and grace to change.
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If the 2% of Americans that hold the bulk of the wealth in the US don't step up and unlimber the bank accounts we will get to repeat history yet again.
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Even in his rising terror he wondered how either of his inquisitors had managed to unlimber, aim, and loose a rope or wire fast enough to bring him down.
Trouble Magnet Foster, Alan Dean, 1946- 2006
bourbonmots commented on the word unlimber
“In their intoxication they made love in her apartment at the Louver, in his carriage, and in the visitors’ waiting room of a convent in Chaillot where Adele’s old governess lived as a nun. Morris did not record their encounters in graphic detail, unlimbering instead the full battery of eighteenth-century euphemisms, reinforced with his own odd humor. They performed ‘the rites’; he conferred ‘the joy’; they did ‘the needful.’ They ‘sacrificed to the Cyprian Queen Venus’; they ‘performed the first commandment given to Adam, i.e. be fruitful and multiply or at least we use the means.’”
-- “Gentleman Revolutionary”, Richard Brookhiser, p117 of the Free Press paperback.
No mention of country matters
August 31, 2011