uncurl

Dole eventually learned that he could grip a pen in his right fingers, a technique he used to mask the fact that he couldn’t uncurl them.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 4, 2021

Salgado’s hands began to uncurl and I brought markers and scrapbooks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2019

They do have different personalities: some don’t want to uncurl, while others are brave and want to explore.

From The Guardian ● May 10, 2019

Gradually - and very, very cautiously - one of those balls begins to uncurl, revealing two blackcurrant eyes, a long snout, an even longer tail and a soft pink belly.

From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2015

You have to picture what it was like to see that great mountain of flesh suddenly uncurl and rise into the sky.

From "Dragonwings" by Laurence Yep

The worker uncurls its claw-like fingers, daintily grips the basket by its edges and walks it over to a conveyor that will send it through an industrial washing machine.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 2026

When he makes a fist, then uncurls his fingers, Athena does the same.

From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2021

In a rescue center, the pangolin slowly wakes and uncurls, sniffing out a nighttime feast of ants’ eggs, then lapping it up with its implausibly long tongue.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 20, 2018

His brush uncurls a reptilian ripple of paint that twines and insinuates itself into a snakepit of color.

From Time Magazine Archive

She uncurls her legs from beneath her, and Ainsley turns to give her a pleading look.

From "Pride" by Ibi Zoboi

In a split second, Chauhan uncurled his fingers and accepted it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2020

Compared to other farmers in his area, he said, his corn remains uncurled for longer.

From Salon ● May 10, 2019

In New York, massive banners were uncurled from atop the entrance to the Holland Tunnel declaring “Black Lives Matter” and “Fund Black Futures.”

From Washington Post ● Jul. 22, 2016

The musicians curled and uncurled around Ian Hunter's snarling voice: "Oh is there concrete all around/ Or is it in my head."

From The Guardian ● Feb. 1, 2013

She tilted her chin so that one plume swept gracefully against her cheek, discreetly curled and uncurled her numb toes inside the kid slippers, and set herself to endure.

From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare

Mine involves eye contact, a short smile, a slow uncurling of the fingers, a small raise of the wrist, and a four- to five-second hold.

From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2020

By curling and uncurling their toes, geckos can alternate between sticking and unsticking from a surface, and thus easily move across it.

From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019

Hundreds of police officers clumped on the corners, glancing up at the smoke uncurling in the sky.

From New York Times ● Sep. 19, 2016

Both of us were upon her, coaxing her hands way from her face, uncurling her to reveal wet cheeks.

From The New Yorker ● Jun. 14, 2014

She felt as though she were a lion uncurling from a long nap, and she wanted to flex her claws.

From "Ash" by Malinda Lo