Other forms: uncoupled, uncoupling, uncouples
To uncouple is to separate two joined vehicles. Uncouple the wagons, uncoupled at the yard, uncouple the engine.
On a railway it is done between wagons and it used to be done by a man with a pole between moving vehicles, which killed a great many shunters before automatic couplings arrived. Figuratively, uncoupling two things means breaking the link between them. Note that the un- reverses an action, as in untie.
1verbuncoupleTo separate two joined vehicles.
“Workers uncoupled the last carriage and left it in a siding.”
uncouple is a separating.
Un- plus couple, where un- reverses the action. Couple comes from Latin copula, a bond.
Middle English
uncouple
English, today
uncouple
From Middle English uncouple; equivalent to un + couple.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA