How to Use untie in a Sentence

untie

verb
  • She untied the horse from the post.
  • He untied the package and opened it.
  • No one doesn’t know that their shoes are untied.
    — Destiny Jackson, Deadline, 30 Oct. 2025
  • Porter talked the man off the chair and then helped to untie his hands.
    — Stefanie Loh, The Seattle Times, 12 May 2017
  • Democrats should slice through this knot rather than attempt to untie it.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 27 Sep. 2022
  • The act tells colleges, in so many words, their hands must be untied.
    — Michael McCann, SI.com, 25 June 2019
  • To begin, lay both pieces face up, with the top's strings untied.
    — Hannah Chubb, PEOPLE.com, 24 Feb. 2022
  • There's no time for a shoe search, untying the shoelace knot, and putting them on.
    — Christopher Elliott, USA Today, 19 Apr. 2025
  • A lot of my work is helping people see that knot and untie it.
    — Jessica Dulong, CNN, 25 Jan. 2022
  • Adult males also walk around with their shoes untied, trying to blend in with the young guys.
    — Judy Holmes, Twin Cities, 6 Feb. 2025
  • There was a big debate about that part where a kid tells Agnes that her shoes are untied.
    — Destiny Jackson, Deadline, 30 Oct. 2025
  • Because you can't get untied every time.
    — Bailey Richards, PEOPLE, 14 June 2026
  • Truman unties his binding and stumbles across the deck to the side rail.
    — Darryn King, WIRED, 4 May 2018
  • Tina untied the tourniquet on Lilian’s arm and left with the tray of tubes.
    — Yiyun Li, The New Yorker, 9 Mar. 2025
  • Decision-by-penalties seems like a child’s idea of how to untie a match.
    — Alejandro Chacoff, The Atlantic, 12 July 2018
  • Matli returned to his comrades, who were now struggling to untie the ropes on a life raft.
    — Helen Sullivan, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2017
  • Hands trembling, Ashanty tried to untie the rope but couldn’t.
    — Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2020
  • Hands trembling, Ashanty tried to untie the rope but couldn't.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 14 Feb. 2020
  • The lace of one black boot came untied, and one of the furious skirt’s feet tripped over the other.
    — Silvina Ocampo, The New Yorker, 11 July 2019
  • Kings tied game twice, but Baynes untied it the second time with a 3 from the top of the key.
    — Duane Rankin, azcentral, 28 Dec. 2019
  • The most basic function of knots for most of us is tying and untying our shoelaces.
    — National Geographic, 29 May 2016
  • Simply double it up — just make sure that the bow will be easy to untie or cut once the bird’s done cooking.
    — Kate Merker, Good Housekeeping, 11 Oct. 2022
  • The victim started to untie the rope, but Cagle jumped on his legs.
    — Kc Baker, People.com, 4 Nov. 2024
  • Sean Payton may as well have been telling Bo Nix his shoe was untied.
    — Nick Kosmider, The Athletic, 21 Aug. 2024
  • Remove the chicken from the broth, place it in a shallow bowl and untie the cheesecloth.
    — Dallas News, 4 Feb. 2021
  • Sarah unties Gerard and runs out just in time to stop Downey, who begs her to let this all go.
    — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 12 Nov. 2025
  • Keene swished into the cold water, untied the funnel of the net and peered in with her headlamp.
    — Douglas Struck, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 June 2017
  • But nobody managed to untie the painter, the rope which tethered the lifeboat to the vessel.
    — Christopher Parker, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Mar. 2023
  • Kemp held Dobbins' leg while Hutchinson tried to untie the shoe.
    — Chris Bumbaca, USA TODAY, 30 Nov. 2019
  • William and his father untie the trawl doors, two massive wrought-iron boards, which rest on either side of the boat.
    — Matthew Bremner, Slate Magazine, 24 July 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'untie.' 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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