How to Use unspool in a Sentence

unspool

verb
  • And for the fourth time ever, the show will unspool a two-part episode in the fall.
    — Dan Snierson, EW.com, 24 July 2021
  • This movie ended with the film reel unspooling all over the floor.
    — Jeet Heer, New Republic, 26 July 2017
  • My life was coming apart, unspooling with great speed, like kite string on a gusty day.
    — Jill Gleeson, Woman's Day, 17 Jan. 2017
  • In one clearing, a gargoyle’s unspooled tongue made a children’s slide.
    — Henry Wismayer, WSJ, 22 Aug. 2018
  • As the decades have unspooled, the cultural power of the disks has only grown.
    — Jeffrey Kluger, Time, 5 Sep. 2017
  • Bd unspools the skin's proteins and feasts on the resulting spaghetti of amino acids.
    — Matthew Fisher, National Geographic, 10 May 2018
  • The roll of twine goes into the canister with the thread unspooling through one of the big holes in the lid.
    — Roxie Hammill, kansascity.com, 13 May 2017
  • Kershaw unspooled a curve that dove toward the tops of Descalso’s shoes.
    — Andy McCullough, latimes.com, 13 June 2019
  • The trail unspools through diverse landscapes of desert, mountain, canyon and forest.
    — Melanie Radzicki McManus, chicagotribune.com, 4 Sep. 2019
  • The roll of paper will slowly unspool as writers type on the typewriter.
    — Anna Webb, idahostatesman, 12 May 2017
  • Bits and pieces of news about the crash and its aftermath will undoubtedly unspool over the next few days or weeks.
    — Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 19 Feb. 2026
  • During a lunar eclipse, Earth’s shadow slowly unspools across the face of the full moon.
    — Stephanie Vermillion, Outside Online, 4 Mar. 2025
  • Larry spent two hours with me on tape, unspooling both his early life with Lauren, as well as her death.
    — Lyz Lenz, Longreads, 18 May 2017
  • Roth also didn't want to make the type of film that would unspool in a high school social studies class, putting all the students to sleep.
    — David Bauder, Star Tribune, 4 Dec. 2020
  • The crackling synth-heavy production made the past come rushing back until all the tape had unspooled and the deck clicked off.
    — Paul Schrodt, WSJ, 18 Dec. 2018
  • The real treasures, though, are the game’s narrative vignettes, which unspool with force and brio.
    — Simon Parkin, The New Yorker, 17 Dec. 2019
  • The book beautifully unspools a bigger picture of faith and the need to nourish the soul.
    — Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 12 May 2025
  • The companion star, buffeted by winds from the pulsar, unspools a long tail of plasma like a comet’s.
    — Quanta Magazine, 10 Oct. 2017
  • With that in mind, get ready to unspool this mystery that includes a questionable photo, a fake tattoo, and a farm.
    — Shannon Carlin, refinery29.com, 26 May 2020
  • News about the jail unspooled over months, as county officials grappled with the problems and lawsuits were filed.
    — Mary Kilpatrick, cleveland, 27 Dec. 2019
  • The language seems designed to unspool all the various layers of this moment.
    — Lynn Steger Strong, The New Republic, 16 Mar. 2022
  • Certain unpredictable events — a leak, a lawsuit, a news story — can start to unspool a secret.
    — Sharon Lerner, ProPublica, 20 May 2024
  • In a crisis, E-6 planes would get airborne and then unspool a wire antenna just over 5 miles long.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 6 Oct. 2020
  • Like all the best soap operas, the stories continue to unspool — and certainly show no signs of slowing down any time soon.
    — Steve Clarke, Variety, 8 Oct. 2021
  • My mother and sister were fascinated by the lurid tale that unspooled in the following years (and decades).
    — Ross Raihala, Twin Cities, 8 July 2019
  • Thinking of those images unspooling in the dark of a cave brings to mind many metaphors, among them intimations of modern movies.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 29 Dec. 2019
  • As the story unspooled Wednesday night and Thursday, others weighed in.
    — Ann Killion, SFChronicle.com, 5 Dec. 2019
  • Films which unspool in closed spaces, whose spectacle is their intimacy.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 24 Oct. 2025
  • Like the Fates pinching the thread of life, a robotic arm unspooled a thin copper wire for a self-assembling satellite dish.
    — Wired, 11 Sep. 2019
  • Texas National Guard troops unspool razor wire along the banks of the Rio Grande.
    — J. David Goodman, New York Times, 26 July 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unspool.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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