Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To dismiss from the mind; disregard.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To retract in thought; remove from the mind or thought; think differently about.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To recall or take back, as something thought.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, intransitive To undo the process of thinking.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • His "unthink" tank has tried for some time to abolish Colorado's nationally acclaimed judicial selection procedure.

    Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local DP Opinion 2010

  • I suggest that you prevent your child from watching YouTube, that is to say, be a parent, censor yourself (and those minors you are responsible for) and leave the "unthink" to the thought police, hmm?

    Boing Boing 2009

  • We all needed to rethink or unthink the moments of silence we had been curating.

    When We Stopped Sound Kimberly Ann Southwick 2011

  • Warning: If you click the link, you can't unthink the image of Ron Paul in a bathing suit

    HUFFPOST HILL - Congress Passes Budget, Catastrophe Postponed Eliot Nelson 2011

  • Try to see the difference and the burden of the one, and the same in the many, in the willingness of unthink in the trials of nothingness

    Singular vs. Plural Joe Sullivan 2011

  • In those days Norman Podhoretz dubbed the Beats as “know-nothing bohemians,” and Robert Brustein declared them leaders of “the cult of unthink.”

    The Typewriter Is Holy Bill Morgan 2010

  • I made myself put it out of my mind, I made myself unthink it, but it was too late.

    THE EXILE OF GIGI LANE Adrienne Maria Vrettos 2010

  • Whenever the unthinkable happens, you can be pretty sure science fiction will unthink it.

    What's Wrong with Star Trek? 2008

  • In those days Norman Podhoretz dubbed the Beats as “know-nothing bohemians,” and Robert Brustein declared them leaders of “the cult of unthink.”

    The Typewriter Is Holy Bill Morgan 2010

  • I made myself put it out of my mind, I made myself unthink it, but it was too late.

    THE EXILE OF GIGI LANE Adrienne Maria Vrettos 2010

Comments

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  • Dan Dennett talked of "unthinking engineering" in his 2002 TED speech, quote:

    Yesterday, Amory Lovins spoke about "infectious repetitis." It was a term of abuse, in effect. This is unthinking engineering. Well, most of the cultural spread that goes on is not brilliant, new, out-of-the-box thinking; it's infectious repetitis.

    And we might as well try to have a theory of what's going on when that happens, so that we can understand the conditions of infection."

    link

    September 21, 2008