unhand
verbUK /ʌnˈhænd/
Etymology From un- + hand.
1
To release from the hand; to let go.
- He holds him with his skinny hand, "There was a ship," quoth he. "Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!" Eftsoons his hand dropt he.1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, part 1, lines 9-12:
- “Unhand' the lady!” said Vernon, in a severe tone, as, at the same time, he draw from his pocket a pistol. “Unhand her!” and he approached the lawyer1853, Oliver Optic, Hatchie, The Guardian Slave or The Heiress of Bellevue. A Tale of the Mississippi and the South-west, B. B. Mussey and Company, and R. B. Fitts and Company, Chapter XXX, page 305:
1 more example
- As he dried the last toe, she said, “Thank you. You may now unhand my feet”2008, Anne Gracie, The Stolen Princess, Berkley Books, →ISBN, Chapter Two, page 33: