1828 T. Carlyle Let. 10 June in Coll. Lett. T. & J. W. Carlyle (1970) IV. 381 She watches over her joiners..with an eye like any hawk's, from which nothing crooked, unplumb, or otherwise irregular can hide itself.

1918 R. M. Jones World Within iv. 66 If the life is unplumb, if the deeds and policies of it swing away from a line of rectitude, nothing can save the structure from collapse.

1991 T. A. Gaines Campus as Work of Art iv. 64 [He] retaliated with the central heating office, whose main feature is unplumb columns made of terra-cotta pipe.

1796 E. Burke Let. to Noble Lord in Wks. (1815) VIII. 6 They unplumb the dead for bullets to assassinate the living.

1796 R. Broome Simkin Redivivus to Simon 10 For making of bullets, unplumbing the dead, To shoot their antagonists right through the head.

1845 R. Ford Hand-bk. Travellers in Spain I. iii. 389 Nor have the dead been unplumbed to furnish missiles of death against the living.

1930 New Yorker 8 Nov. 63/1 The chances were that when the time came to unplumb the voting machines [which are to be temporarily converted into drinking fountains] the plumber might be on another job.

1987 Toronto Star (Nexis) 4 Sept. b4 My husband had to unplumb and plumb the kitchen four times and I was several days without water or a sink.

2000 Jrnl. (Newcastle) (Nexis) 2 Sept. 28 Fix a day to do your last-minute washing and ironing before you unplumb the machine.