UNDOING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does undoing mean? 

• UNDOING (noun)
  The noun UNDOING has 2 senses:

1. an act that makes a previous act of no effect (as if not done)

2. loosening the ties that fasten something

  Familiarity information: UNDOING used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNDOING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An act that makes a previous act of no effect (as if not done)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("undoing" is a kind of...):

about-face; policy change; reversal; volte-face (a major change in attitude or principle or point of view)

Derivation:

undo (cancel, annul, or reverse an action or its effect)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Loosening the ties that fasten something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

undoing; unfastening; untying

Context example:

the tying of bow ties is an art; the untying is easy

Hypernyms ("undoing" is a kind of...):

laxation; loosening (the act of making something less tight)

Derivation:

undo (cause to become loose)

 Context examples 

And as she spoke she was undoing a small parcel, which Fanny had observed in her hand when they met.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

"Oh, my tongue, my abominable tongue! Why can't I learn to keep it quiet?" groaned Jo, remembering words which had been her undoing.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The wind balked my every effort, ripping the canvas out of my hands and in an instant undoing what I had gained by ten minutes of severest struggle.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He had picked from a drawer a little tarnished cylinder, and, undoing the tape, he handed me a short note scrawled upon a half-sheet of slate-grey paper.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Up to now I never quite knew what Shakespeare meant when he made Hamlet say:—for now, feeling as though my own brain were unhinged or as if the shock had come which must end in its undoing, I turn to my diary for repose.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The boy had some slight difficulty in undoing the heavy iron gates, and we heard the hoarse roar of the Doctor’s voice and saw the fury with which he shook his clinched fists at him.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

John had praised her, and was undoing the old pocketbook which they called the 'bank', when Meg, knowing that it was quite empty, stopped his hand, saying nervously...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)