untwine

verb

1. (transitive)To untwist the strands of (something entwined).

   “The rope must be then untwined and the middle of each strand laid across the top and stitched down along the pencil line, half the length falling on one side, half on the other.”

2. (transitive)To free (one thing that is entwined with another), disentangle, extricate.

   “Woe to the revolutionist who is not himself a creature of the revolution! If he anticipate, he is lost; for it requires, what no individual can supply, a long and powerful counter-sympathy in a nation to untwine the ties of custom which bind a people to the established and the old.”

   “She then untwined the snake from her body, and held it by the tail high above her.”

   “She stood her ground until he reached her and flung both arms around her neck, dragging her to the floor. She later said the police had to untwine him before he could be taken to the ambulance.”

3. (intransitive)To become untwisted or disentangled.

   “As the tangled mass of men untwined, following the blast of the whistle, Sage heard Stone calling in his ear […]”

   “The zebra of their legs twined and untwined together on the bed.”