unfret

From un- +‎ fret.

unfret (third-person singular simple present unfrets, present participle unfretting, simple past and past participle unfretted)

1. (transitive) To smooth after being fretted.
   • 1590, Thomas Lodge and Robert Greene, A Looking Glass for London and England:

     My mind misgives: to Joppa will I fly, And for a while to Tharsus shape my course, Until the Lord unfret his angry brows.

   • 1956, Shenandoah - Volumes 8-9, page 65:

     For how many floodings must it assuage, For how many shufflings must it unfret Those winking, muttering banks with its aching arch.

   • 1997, Diane Kelsey McColley, Poetry and Music in Seventeenth-Century England, page 99:

     Much of the alleged roughness of Donne's prosody unfrets itself without betraying his refusal of mellifluous regularity – if readers fit word lengths and rests into lines as singers do.

   • 2000, Robert Devereaux, Santa Steps Out, page 33:

     So unfret that brow, put your worries behind you, let's see some jolly light those eyes.

2. (by extension, transitive, intransitive) To sooth or calm; to make or become less fretful or stressed.
   • 1936, Frederick Stallknecht Wight, The Chronicle of Aaron Kane, page 28:

     "She'll be all right," Madge assured him. "Now you go out a while, and unfret yourself. It's a boy you've got."

   • 2003, Milton Arthur Caniff, Steve Canyon, 1948, page 11:

     Fall back and unfret yourself, Ol' Fuzzer!

   • 2008, Patricia A. Kuess, Slather:

     My laugh is a light, gentle trill, perfectly tuned to unfret him immediately.

   • 2009, Bholanath Das, Reflection of Human Behaviour, page 56:

     Though helpless, I could not help standing as mute witness and let the situation unfret without trying to do something and I almost shouted in high pitch, "Why are you beating him? What has he done to you? We are students from University and going home. We are innocent."

3. To remove (a string) from the frets of a musical instrument.
   • 1985, John Schneider, The Contemporary Guitar, page 108:

     Just as several notes can be played on a single bow, the guitarist can play several notes with a single pluck, using legato or ligado techniques in which the left hand continues to fret or unfret notes after the string has been plucked.

   • 2011, Ken Perlman, Celtic and New England Fiddle Tunes for Clawhammer Banjo, page 6:

     To avoid confusion, a 0 appears if, as is usually the case, the string is to be unfretted;

   • 2011, Janita Baker, Fingerpicking Dulcimer, page 17:

     You may wish to approach the fingering by moving only one finger at a time, and only then when you absolutely must move it to a new position, or unfret the string so it may be played open.

• trufen, turfen