Dictionary

unsee en · VERB

Etymology

From un- + see. Compare Middle English unseen, unsen (“to fail to see, be unable to see”).

Meanings

1. (in the negative, transitive) To undo the act of seeing something; to erase the memory of having seen something, or otherwise reverse the effect of having seen something.
   • Once you saw the face of a god in those jumbled blacks and whites, it was everybody out of the pool—you could never unsee it. 1977, Stephen King, The Shining:
   • We have shown the world, and it cannot be unseen, it cannot be unknown, it cannot be forgotten, that Christianity cannot be defended on any ground where Infidelity can get an inch of fair play against it. 1829, Robert Taylor, “Infidel Mission.—Fifteenth Bulletin”, in The Lion, volume IV, number 10, page 304:
   • once you’ve seen this you bear always the burden of its sight. And, as Laura says, you can’t unsee it. 1969, Joseph McElroy, Hind's Kidnap, page 180:
   • I have only seen the performance once; and I would not unsee it again if I could; but none the less I am a broken man after it. 1897 March 20, George Bernard Shaw, "Shakespeare in Manchester", printed in 1906, Dramatic Opinions and Essays with an Apology by Bernard Shaw, Volume 2, Brentano's (1922), page 215
   • USA Today called it an “erotic workout video.” Mika Brzezinski, the co-host of “Morning Joe,” declared that she could not “unsee” it. 2026 February 20, Katie Rogers, “Bench Presses, Pull Ups … Kid Rock? The White House Had a Very Manly Week.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • Once one has “seen” the well-known gestalt psychology drawing of the young woman in a fur coat, she cannot be “unseen” after one notices the alternative, an old crone 1991, E. Roy Weintraub, Stabilizing Dynamics, page 94:

Forms

Coordinates

unhear

Deriveds

what has been seen cannot be unseen

Translations (6)

pl odzobaczyć (undo the act of seeing something) · ru разви́деть (undo the act of seeing something) · hu (ki)törli a látványát (undo the act of seeing something) · pt desver (undo the act of seeing something) · es desver (undo the act of seeing something) · fi unohtaa nähneensä (undo the act of seeing something)