different between straighten vs untie

English

Etymology

From straight +? -en. Compare Scots strauchten (“to straighten”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?st?e?tn?/
• Hyphenation: straight?en
• Rhymes: -e?t?n

Verb

straighten (third-person singular simple present straightens, present participle straightening, simple past and past participle straightened)

1. (transitive) To cause to become straight.
2. (intransitive) To become straight.
3. (transitive) To put in order; to sort; to tidy up.

   to straighten one's affairs, or an account
4. (transitive) To clarify a situation or concept to (an audience).
5. (transitive, slang) To bribe or corrupt.
6. (intransitive) To stand up, especially from a sitting position.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• straiten

Anagrams

• astringeth, shattering

English

Etymology

From Middle English untien, unteyen, unty?en, unti?en, from Old English unt??an (“to untie”), equivalent to un- +? tie.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?ta?/
• Rhymes: -a?

Verb

untie (third-person singular simple present unties, present participle untying, simple past and past participle untied)

1. (transitive) To loosen, as something interlaced or knotted; to disengage the parts of.
   • 1645, Edmund Waller, To Amoret

     Sacharissa's captive fain / Would untie his iron chain.

2. (transitive) To free from fastening or from restraint; to let loose; to unbind.
   • c. 1605,, Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 4, scene 1:

     Though you untie the winds, and let them fight / Against the churches.

   • 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living

     All the evils of an untied tongue we put upon the accounts of drunkenness.

3. To resolve; to unfold; to clear.
   • 1668, John Denham, Of Prudence (poem)

     They quicken sloth, perplexities untie.

4. (intransitive) To become untied or loosed.
5. (programming, transitive) In the Perl programming language, to undo the process of tying, so that a variable uses default instead of custom functionality.
   • 2002, Dave Roth, Win32 Perl Programming: The Standard Extensions (page 151)

     After you finish with the INI file, all you need to do is untie the hash. Then you really are finished!

Antonyms

• tie

Translations

Anagrams

• unite