unload
/ʌnˈləʊd
/verb [with object]
1Remove goods from (a vehicle, ship, container, etc.): she hadn’t finished unloading the car...
- When workers began industrial action and refused to unload a plane, two union delegates were sacked.
- As for moving day, we started loading the first car at about 9.00 on Saturday morning and finished unloading the van and three cars by 3.00 that afternoon.
- Quin watched the men finish unloading the truck, and head inside.
Synonyms
unpack, empty, unburden, disburden
rare unlade
1.1Remove (goods) from a vehicle, ship, container, etc. men were unloading sacks of olives from a tractor...
- Lorries and vans blocked two of Bolton busiest main roads, and tempers boiled over as Ashburner Street stallholders arrived to find they could not unload their goods.
- You're on the highway for up to 11 hours at a stretch, not to mention putting in another three hours a day loading or unloading goods.
- I now see people walking their dogs, delivery men unloading their goods, students heading to class.
Synonyms
remove, offload, discharge, jettison, drop, deliver, deposit, set down, leave, put off, tip out, pour out
1.2 informal Get rid of (something unwanted): he had unloaded his depreciating stock on his unsuspecting wife...
- I said nothing, so as not to spoil the evening, but I do not appreciate other people unloading their junk disguised as gifts on us.
- But if you never really liked them all that well to begin with, this might be a good time to unload them.
- We unloaded our spare supplies on them and wished them good luck.
Synonyms
sell, discard, jettison, offload, eject, get rid of, dispose of, pass off, throw out/away, clear out, scrap, destroy;
palm something off on someone, foist something on someone, fob something off on someone
informal dump, lose, junk, get shot/shut of, see the back of
1.3Give expression to (oppressive thoughts or feelings): the meeting had been a chance for her to unload some of her feelings about her son...
- It's like I couldn't unload my feelings somehow.
- Each family member does have moments where they unload their thoughts.
- This letter doesn't have a huge conclusion; I realize that unloading my fears is probably never going to change the world.
2Remove (ammunition) from a gun or (film) from a camera.They only had a range of about three furlongs and the film had to be unloaded from the camera and rushed to a dark room on the track to be processed before it could be shown to the stewards....
- The person over there opened the magazine and unloaded the bullets from it.
- And with each gun she picked up she unloaded the paint bullets and replaced them with the real bullets.
Derivatives
unloader
- But Judge Hyam, the Recorder of London, told Watson: ‘If you had been successful, suspicion would have fallen on innocent people - loaders and unloaders.’
- All three had volunteered to go up as unloaders for the aerial dropping of supplies at Myola and there is a note in Parer's papers about the planes on the airstrip being parked wingtip to wingtip.
- This is a truly Stakhanovite effort, by all the maintainers, the pilots, the fuellers and unloaders, and by Air Traffic Control.