UNLOAD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unload mean? 

• UNLOAD (verb)
  The verb UNLOAD has 2 senses:

1. remove (cargo, people, etc.) from and leave

2. remove the load from (a container or vehicle)

  Familiarity information: UNLOAD used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNLOAD (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they unload    ... he / she / it unloads   
Past simple: unloaded   
Past participle: unloaded   
-ing form: unloading   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remove (cargo, people, etc.) from and leave

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

discharge; drop; drop off; put down; set down; unload

Context example:

drop off the passengers at the hotel

Hypernyms (to "unload" is one way to...):

deliver (bring to a destination, make a delivery)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "unload"):

wharf (discharge at a wharf)

air-drop (drop (an object) from the air; unload from a plane or helicopter)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP
Somebody ----s something PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Remove the load from (a container or vehicle)

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

offload; unlade; unload

Context example:

offload the van

Hypernyms (to "unload" is one way to...):

empty (remove)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something PP

Derivation:

unloading (the labor of taking a load of something off of or out of a vehicle or ship or container etc.)

 Context examples 

After they had travelled three miles they unloaded the sled, came back for her, and by main strength put her on the sled again.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

"I saw you unload it from the sled."

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I had unloaded the boat and carried its contents high up on the beach, where I had set about making a camp.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

And here is our boat, Sir Oliver, so it seems best to me that we should go to the abbey with our squires, leaving Master Hawtayne to have his own way in the unloading.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Always store guns unloaded.

(Gun Safety, NIH)

So I writ a letter while I was out, and put it in the post-office, telling of 'em how all was as 'tis; and that I should come down tomorrow to unload my mind of what little needs a-doing of down theer, and, most-like, take my farewell leave of Yarmouth.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When they were all unloaded and packed in a great heap in one corner of the yard, the Slovaks were given some money by the Szgany, and spitting on it for luck, lazily went each to his horse's head.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Messner unharnessed the animals, unloaded his sled and took possession.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

When they put a clothes-sack on the front of the sled, she suggested it should go on the back; and when they had put it on the back, and covered it over with a couple of other bundles, she discovered overlooked articles which could abide nowhere else but in that very sack, and they unloaded again.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)