1
as in to unpack
to empty or rid of cargo
the dockworkers unloaded the ship
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to dump
to get rid of as useless or unwanted
I can't seem to unload this old car—even the charities won't take it!
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of unload
Mitchell then produced a handgun and unloaded the magazine into Seth Tatum, the victim’s family said.
—
Lillie Davidson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 26 Apr. 2026
Just across the road from the site of the first international conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels, in Colombia, oil tankers routinely unload at the Pozos Colorados terminal, with its large tank farm.
—Fabiano Maisonnave, Los Angeles Times, 26 Apr. 2026
Nataliia had gone to the bus station, where soldiers were spraying foam to contain the nuclear fallout, and to the hospital, where men in white coats were unloading victims on stretchers from the backs of ambulances.
—Lizzie Johnson, New Yorker, 25 Apr. 2026
Instead of proper metal baskets to hold tennis balls, Sam unloaded several lidless coolers from the RV, their insulation poking out through the cracks in the sides, all filled with balls.
—Nicola Harrison, PEOPLE, 25 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for unload
Lillie Davidson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 26 Apr. 2026
Just across the road from the site of the first international conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels, in Colombia, oil tankers routinely unload at the Pozos Colorados terminal, with its large tank farm.
—Fabiano Maisonnave, Los Angeles Times, 26 Apr. 2026
Nataliia had gone to the bus station, where soldiers were spraying foam to contain the nuclear fallout, and to the hospital, where men in white coats were unloading victims on stretchers from the backs of ambulances.
—Lizzie Johnson, New Yorker, 25 Apr. 2026
Instead of proper metal baskets to hold tennis balls, Sam unloaded several lidless coolers from the RV, their insulation poking out through the cracks in the sides, all filled with balls.
—Nicola Harrison, PEOPLE, 25 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for unload
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unload
Verb
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McMahon's first appearance on Capitol Hill in nearly a year was intended to unpack the White House proposal on education spending for the 2027 fiscal year — and gave senators a chance to take stock of McMahon's actions.—
Sequoia Carrillo,
NPR,
28 Apr. 2026
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The conversation will unpack public figures, navigating legacy and revealing the human story behind the headlines.—
Michael Schneider,
Variety,
27 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The Level 5 accident dumped radioactive contamination across Europe and it is thought that traces of isotope iodine-131 may have caused several hundred cancer diagnoses.—
Kurt Snibbe,
Oc Register,
25 Apr. 2026
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Next to it was one of the vast open spaces where the city of Ottawa carted and dumped the snow removed from city streets—a vast mountain range of gray-white that survived into the heat of early summer.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
23 Apr. 2026
Verb
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One wildfire in Georgia has destroyed nearly 90 homes and forced residents to evacuate.—
Brittney Melton,
NPR,
24 Apr. 2026
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Earlier, the Israeli army asked residents of the southern Lebanese village of Deir Aames to evacuate, saying Hezbollah was using the village to launch attacks against Israel.—
Munir Ahmed,
Chicago Tribune,
24 Apr. 2026
Verb
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And, while most people don't regularly watch VHS tapes anymore, discarding tapes with family memories on them might leave you with some regret.—
Alexandra Kelly,
Martha Stewart,
26 Apr. 2026
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One thing that the Loverboy founder discarded was a fellow cast member leaking it, as phones have to be tucked away behind a pillow.—
Armando Tinoco,
Deadline,
24 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Allen was charged with discharging a weapon but has not been formally accused of assaulting a federal officer.—
Tim Stelloh,
NBC news,
29 Apr. 2026
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This greatly increases the surface area available for electrochemical reactions and enables faster charging and discharging while maintaining high power density in an extremely small footprint.—
Georgina Jedikovska,
Interesting Engineering,
29 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The Ulta Buy More, Save More Sale couldn’t have come at a better time—we’re officially ditching the beanies and letting our hair out.—
Christa Joanna Lee,
Allure,
28 Apr. 2026
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Kerss is a master at breaking the complicated information down into manageable bites for those of us who ditched science after high school.—
Heather Greenwood Davis,
Condé Nast Traveler,
27 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Educators were fired for making insensitive comments about him on their personal social-media accounts; a firefighter in Toledo lost his job for posting a derisive eulogy on Facebook; various airline employees were suspended for disparaging Kirk online.—
Brady Brickner-Wood,
New Yorker,
29 Apr. 2026
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Gray added that both players agreed to lose the game in exchange for $10,000 to $15,000 in payments each.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
29 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Raphael could certainly extract feeling from the architecture of a body and the distribution of its weight, but the majority of his faces, even the most artificially expressive ones, are unburdened by anything like a psychology.—
Zachary Fine,
New Yorker,
20 Apr. 2026
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Its pastel-colored houses stacked against one another along towering coastal cliffs, a sapphire sea glittering below, have become an emblem for life unburdened by the mundane.—
Heike Blümner,
Air Mail,
11 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Unload.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unload. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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