deshilvanar

From des- (negation prefix) +‎ hilvanar (“to baste or stitch together”).

• IPA^(key): /desilbaˈnaɾ/ [d̪e.sil.β̞aˈnaɾ]
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: des‧hil‧va‧nar

deshilvanar (first-person singular present deshilvano, first-person singular preterite deshilvané, past participle deshilvanado)

1. (transitive) to untack
   • 2002 November 21, “Manual de instrucciones inservibles”, in El Tiempo‎^[1]:

     Junca, de 34 años, deshilvana una serie de guantes negros de lana, que descansan en el piso, y los convierte, paradójicamente, en instrucciones de uso.

     Junca, who is 34, untacks a series of black wool gloves, which rest on the floor, and he turns them, paradoxically, into directions for use.

2. (transitive) to remove basting threads from
3. (by extension, transitive) to unravel (to clear from complication or difficulty)
   • 2016 December 11, “Falleció Pedro Cajías, un querido personaje paceño”, in Página Siete‎^[2], archived from the original on 24 April 2018:

     Fue un hombre que trató de deshilvanar algunas de las hipocresías de la ciudad.

     He was a man who tried to unravel some of the city's hypocrisies.

• “deshilvanar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024