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

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

The one fry that didn’t quite uncurl and left the fryer in one giant potato-y, batter-y lump.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 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’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go.

From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

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 removes her hand from her pocket and uncurls her fingers.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

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

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2020

On the side of a one-storey church, which was white and wooden and peaked with a small belfry, I uncurled a green hose and drank a long time.

From The Guardian ● Jul. 19, 2019

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

He uncurled himself slowly and sat up a little straighter.

From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat

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

“The important thing is that I can shoot a gun again now,” Azar said, gently curling and uncurling his fingers.

From New York Times ● Aug. 10, 2016

Ancient Babylonians likened it to an uncurling date palm shoot.

From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2015

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

As it was, she could feel her curls unceremoniously uncurling; she forced herself to converse, that she might not see herself in a small, strange room, ever shrinking with shame, far away from everyone else.

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen