Find the word definition

Crossword clues for unload

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
unload
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
cargo
▪ Then they would unload their human cargo and speed back, using a different route, to repeat the process.
▪ Patients could watch trains load and unload cargo from the ships docked at the waterfront.
▪ There they found two boats tied up alongside the wharf, waiting to unload their cargo of dolphin corpses.
▪ The stretcher bearers ran out to unload the cargo.
▪ On the other hand, he could find he had been selected to unload a valuable cargo such as palm kernels.
▪ It became the head of navigation where they unloaded their cargoes.
■ VERB
begin
▪ As the crew began to unload the waste drums, inflatable dinghies were deliberately positioned underneath.
▪ As she watched, two men began unloading something long and heavy, but she could not see what it was.
▪ Within twenty minutes a car drove up to the family majlis and began to unload a meal for us all.
▪ A truck arrived at our door one morning and two burly men began unloading cartons from the back.
▪ No one spoke; they began to unload the cases from the lorry.
▪ Primo walked back up the street and began unloading the van.
▪ A middle-aged couple got out and began to unload a motley collection of boxes and bags.
▪ I began to unload the camels.
help
▪ How stop myself swinging down through the branches to help unload her little car?
▪ She rinsed the sheets secretly, after Sethe went to the restaurant and Paul D went scrounging for barges to help unload.
▪ Several Negro women waited with her, and Wilson was there to help unload him.
load
▪ Such a barn is easy to load and unload and may be adapted for other uses when empty.
▪ That is, if the loading and unloading actually occurred.
▪ You see them being loaded and unloaded, sailing piled up to the funnel with cotton bales or wrecked by tornadoes.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Could you unload the dishwasher?
▪ Paul's job was mainly unloading cartons and stacking them.
▪ The ship is unloading at the dock right now.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Everything was grey, wet and colourless as we stood by the rail watching the luggage being unloaded into the custom sheds.
▪ He stood quietly and watched the boxes being unloaded.
▪ I am anxious to unload, Mr Tyron.
▪ In recent months, Fidelity, not just Magellan, has unloaded tech stocks.
▪ Mike climbed the steps without speaking, and unloaded his cameras and camera bag on a mat.
▪ Much oil and petrol is unloaded at docks along the canal, particularly for a petrochemical works at Carrington.
▪ There was a certain way of unloading timber which made the work quite straight forward.
▪ Wall Street had speculated earlier this week that Kodak would unload the unprofitable unit.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Unload

Unload \Un*load"\, v. t. [1st pref. un- + load.]

  1. To take the load from; to discharge of a load or cargo; to disburden; as, to unload a ship; to unload a beast.

  2. Hence, to relieve from anything onerous.

  3. To discharge or remove, as a load or a burden; as, to unload the cargo of a vessel.

  4. To draw the charge from; as, to unload a gun.

  5. To sell in large quantities, as stock; to get rid of.

Unload

Unload \Un*load"\, v. i. To perform the act of unloading anything; as, let unload now.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
unload

1520s, in reference to cargo, from un- (2) + load (v.). Figurative sense (in reference to feelings, etc.) is recorded from 1590s. Used in reference to sales of stocks by 1870, hence U.S. colloquial sense "dispose of property the holding of which is risky" (1881). Related: Unloaded; unloading.\n

Wiktionary
unload

vb. 1 (context transitive English) To remove the load or cargo from (a vehicle, etc.). 2 (context transitive English) To remove (the load or cargo) from a vehicle, etc. 3 (context intransitive English) To deposit one's load or cargo. 4 (context transitive intransitive figuratively English) To give vent to or express. 5 (context transitive computing English) To remove (something previously loaded) from memory. 6 (context transitive English) To discharge, pour, or expel. 7 (context transitive English) To get rid of or dispose of. 8 (context transitive English) To deliver forcefully. 9 (context transitive slang English) To ejaculate, particularly within an orifice. (rfex) 10 (context transitive English) To draw the charge from.

WordNet
unload
  1. v. leave or unload, especially of passengers or cargo; [syn: drop, set down, put down, discharge]

  2. take the load off (a container or vehicle); "unload the truck"; "offload the van" [syn: offload]

Usage examples of "unload".

She paused to watch an old Malay fisherman unload silvery barramundi, thread them along an oar and, hoisting it to one shoulder, lift a bucket of cockle oysters and set off for town.

Now a mixed crew of ranch hands and Barton Bulldogs was unloading crates from the trucks and carrying them aboard the landing craft.

I began unloading the groceries onto the counter, handing things to Bucky to put in the fridge.

Then it took Bult another half hour to get his pony loaded, decide he wanted his umbrella, unload everything to find it and load it again, and by that time Carson had used inappropriate manner and tone and thrown his hat on the ground, and we had to wait while Bult added those on.

General Manesh was about to unload another few hundred rounds on the savages when he noticed a bright flash to his left followed by a river of smoke coming directly at him.

Ged who had never been down from the heights of the mountain, the Port of Gont was an awesome and marvellous place, the great houses and towers of cut stone and waterfront of piers and docks and basins and moorages, the seaport where half a hundred boats and galleys rocked at quayside or lay hauled up and overturned for repairs or stood out at anchor in the roadstead with furled sails and closed oarports, the sailors shouting in strange dialects and the longshoremen running heavyladen amongst barrels and boxes and coils of rope and stacks of oars, the bearded merchants in furred robes conversing quietly as they picked their way along the slimy stones above the water, the fishermen unloading their catch, coopers pounding and shipmakers hammering and clamsellers singing and shipmasters bellowing, and beyond all the silent, shining bay.

Great ocean-going briqs and junqs had unloaded here, revealing marvels brought from half the world away, and sometimes odd bits and pieces that had proved unsalable had been tossed overside before the fleets returned to sea.

At Pacific Street bulkhead there was a trading schooner, the Pelorus, unloading copra, and Tamea spoke to the Kanaka mate in his own language.

But Naomi listened to every sound with eager intentness--the light plash of the blue wavelets that washed to her feet, the ripple of their crests when the Levanter chased them and caught them, the dip of the oars of the boatman, the rattle of the anchor-chains of ships in the bay, and the fierce vociferations of the negroes who waded up to their waists to unload the cargoes.

They were unloading a jet two gates over, and Platt hurried in that direction.

After the night meal Ric and two other greenbacks were picked by a prowling Flame for a special job unloading a cargo from a ship that had just landed on the roof.

Already the porters were unloading their stout sacks, huge crates, round baskets, frail punnets and long flat boxes filled with living scent and colour, sweating and grumbling over their labours as though their exquisite burdens were so much fish or pig-iron.

It still loaded on one end and unloaded on the other, though, through a raisable bow, and a ferry was a ferry to me and I told him so.

So she jammed the yoke forward to its stop, cycling the unloaded Clydesdales up with a yowl of protest, and when she thought she had every RPM they could deliver to the pumps, recoupled the wheels.

Standing near each mobile staircase were his own guys, Port Authority cops and EMS people, positioned to get on board and begin the shitty job of unloading the corpses.