What is the origin of 'sleep tight'?
Read moreOne of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
adjective
Not or no longer stuck.
‘grease particles come unglued from the plate’- ‘The copy I reviewed was soft cover, which hopefully will withstand the test of time and use, and pages will not become unglued and fall out.’
- ‘She slid two fingers underneath the unglued flap, popped it open and slid out the note paper with an overwhelming sense of dread.’
- ‘It took us quite a while to get them unglued, but we managed to do that this morning.’
- ‘When he felt his eyes were sufficiently unglued, he wandered over to lift the scroll and read its contents.’
- ‘On this unglued section, a tag board cover is glued.’
- ‘If you flex these two 'books', the one with unglued pages will fold easily because the pages will slide on each other.’
- ‘My copy's spine was unglued when I cracked the can, so I had to have it replaced.’
- ‘Some of the crew are holding me and others are trying to get me unglued.’
- ‘‘I've had this button pop out on me, fall out of its socket, and sometimes it's not even there or it's loose and unglued,’ says Lortie.’
- ‘The only views into the empty interior are from cracks in the sides where the paper is unglued.’
- ‘The glue will dry almost immediately and you can never get it unglued.’
Phrases
come unglued
1informal (of plans or an enterprise) end in failure.
‘it was only a matter of time before the whole operation came unglued’- ‘They had fallback plans and people to blame if anything came unglued.’
- ‘Then, things came unglued as they got away from the game plan and began to make errors.’
- ‘We can't will the meal or the occasion to turn out well and often the best-designed plans wind up coming unglued through some miscue or disagreement.’
2informal (of a person) become confused or upset.
‘‘What was it about him that made her come unglued with just a single look?’’- ‘It is a fantastic spectacle, but everyone comes a bit unglued at that time of year, taxi fares quadruple, accommodation rates triple, and masses of visitors descend on the area to get drunk, high and exchange exotic diseases.’
- ‘After much discussion, and me on the verge of coming unglued, the original route was agreed upon.’
- ‘And in the final chapter, when Lil comes unglued during the reading of Mrs. Gramby's will, Meatus slaps her and tells her to shut up.’
- ‘Humiliated, Pantani comes unglued and withdraws a few days later, and Armstrong pedals imperiously to his second Tour win.’
- ‘He is coming unglued as his team falls further below 500.’
- ‘When the Q&A session finally got under way, Rourke's responses suggested a man coming completely unglued.’
- ‘With detectives hot on his trail and his daughter coming unglued, he tries to stay calm.’
- ‘Some come absolutely unglued, and feel compelled to humiliate the poor souls, when they should be offering encouragement and praise.’
- ‘I like to see them come unglued, and I like to see how the characters in the novels cope with this problem.’
- ‘Blair cried, and when Alberto wouldn't answer he came slightly unglued.’
