Unyokes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To disengage a binding device from draught animals while also freeing oneself or another from an oppressive duty or restriction
2. To remove a yoke from animals or to free someone from a burdensome obligation
3. To take off a device connecting draft animals or to liberate a person from a constraint

Etymology: "Unyokes" is the third-person singular present form of "unyoke," meaning to remove the yoke from an animal, typically an ox or draft animal, after work is done. The base verb descends from Middle English "unyoken," which came from Old English "unġeocian," meaning the same thing. Its roots are simple: the prefix "un-" reversing an action, joined to "yoke," the wooden frame that binds a pair of oxen together at the neck so they pull as one. Old English "geoc" (the source of "yoke") goes back to a common Germanic and Indo-European root meaning to join, which is also the ancestor of Latin "iugum" and the English "conjugal." The verb was built on that same idea: "yoke" means binding things together, and "unyoke" means undoing that binding.

Synonyms: detach, unbind, separate

Antonyms: yoke, attach, bind