unbend

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to straighten; to relax from formality or stiffness

   After dinner the stern host began to unbend and tell jokes.

From un- (reversative prefix) + bend, from Old English bendan ('to bend a bow, fetter'), from Proto-Germanic *bandijan, related to band, from Proto-Indo-European *bhendh- ('to bind').

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