unwind

Meanings

1. To separate (something that is wound up)
2. To disentangle
3. To relax; to chill out; to rest and become relieved of stress
4. To be or become unwound; to be capable of being unwound or untwisted.
5. To close out a position, especially a complicated position.
6. To undo something.
7. To navigate back through (a call stack) so as to generate a stack trace etc.
8. Synonym of unroll (“replace a loop with a sequence”).
9. To unravel or explain.

1. Any mechanism or operation that unwinds something.

Etymology

From Middle English unwinden, from Old English unwindan (“to unwind; unwrap”), from Proto-Germanic *andawindaną (“to unwind”); equivalent to un- + wind (“to coil”). Cognate with Dutch ontwinden (“to unwind”).