unroof

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to remove or tear the roof from a building or other covered structure

   The violent storm threatened to unroof the old barn.

2. 2
   verb

   literary: to uncover something as though by removing its roof

   Ice cutters unroof the fishes' winter house when they open the frozen pond.

Formed from un-, in its reversive sense, + roof. The literal verb means to strip away a roof; literary uses extend the image to removing any covering that encloses or shelters something.

Topics