Undock

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To separate a boat or spacecraft from its docking point, allowing it to move freely in the water or space
2. This action involves the release of a vessel or object that was fixed to a dock or station
3. To cause a vessel or spacecraft to detach from the place where it is moored or docked

Etymology: The verb "undock" is a simple formation: the prefix "un-" added to "dock," meaning to reverse an action. Its prefix is the more interesting half, since "un-" descends from Old English "on," a word that originally meant "on" or "onto" and gradually took on the reversing sense that now lets English turn many verbs around. The base word "dock" has its own separate lineage. It was borrowed into English from Middle Dutch "dokke," meaning a bed or a basin, which gave the English noun its original sense of an enclosed body of water for ships. Dutch shipbuilders and sailors were the source of the nautical vocabulary that English absorbed, so a term for a sheltered harbor came to mean the act of tying a vessel up in one. Taken together, "undock" describes the reverse of that process: a ship is released from its mooring or berth so it can leave. The verb is recorded in its everyday nautical sense, and the combination reflects how readily English pairs "un-" with concrete action words.

Synonyms: detach, disconnect, unmoor

Antonyms: dock, moor, attach