Dictionary

unache en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English unaken, equivalent to un- + ache.

Meanings

1. (ambitransitive, rare) To relieve from pain; soothe
   • We ate and we drank and we decided to rest our bruised selves that afternoon. We were in the twilight world now, walking where no man had ever walked before, and we felt ourselves to be golden. It was good to stretch out and try to unache. 1967, Worlds of If, volume 17, number 3, page 52:
   • Slowly I slide my right hand under the pillow (I sleep on the right, window side) and push my left hand palm up along my thigh — a limp parody of a swimmer's crawl — and I begin to unache, from shoulder through to hand, from thigh down to feet, my back. 1999, Niall Duthie, Lobster Moth, page 21:
   • This last summer, though, though I hobbled round like a ninety-year-old, I felt I was on the mend; my leg would unstiffen and my back unache, and I'd be my old self. 2017, Henry Woodiss, George Dalrymple, Woodiss Waits:

Forms