different between unload vs decan

English

Etymology

From un- +? load.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?l??d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?lo?d/
• Rhymes: -??d

Verb

unload (third-person singular simple present unloads, present participle unloading, simple past and past participle unloaded)

1. (transitive) To remove the load or cargo from (a vehicle, etc.).

   to unload a ship; to unload a camel

2. (transitive) To remove (the load or cargo) from a vehicle, etc.

   to unload bales of hay from a truck

3. (intransitive) To deposit one's load or cargo.
4. (transitive, intransitive, figuratively) To give vent to or express; to unburden oneself of.
   • 1984, John Arlott, David Rayvern Allen, Arlott on cricket: his writings on the game

     […] who bowled with such fury that he needed beer to give him something to sweat out, and who unloaded his emotions in words as hard as his bowling.

5. (transitive, computing) To remove (something previously loaded) from memory.
   • 1993, Tony Martin, Lisa C Towell, The NewWave agent handbook

     When you unload a DLL, the memory and other system resources it is using will become available for use by other applications.

6. (transitive) To discharge, pour, or expel.
7. (transitive) To get rid of or dispose of.

   to unload unprofitable stocks

8. (transitive, aviation) To reduce the vertical load factor on an airplane's wing or other lifting surface, typically by pitching downwards toward the ground to decrease angle of attack and reduce the amount of lift generated.
9. (transitive) To deliver forcefully.
10. (transitive, slang) To ejaculate, particularly within an orifice. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
11. (transitive) To draw the charge from.

    to unload a gun

Derived terms

• unloader

Translations

References

• unload in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?d?k?n/
• Rhymes: -?k?n

Noun

decan (plural decans)

1. (Egyptology, astrology) One of a collection of 36 small constellations or zodiacal subdivisions that appear heliacally at intervals of 10 days or are separated by approximately 10 degrees.

Etymology 2

de- +? can

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.kæn/

Verb

decan (third-person singular simple present decans, present participle decanning, simple past and past participle decanned)

1. To remove (something, especially nuclear reactor fuel) from a can or similar protective enclosure, cladding, etc.
   • 1962, American Nuclear Society, Hot Laboratory Division, Winter Meeting, Proceedings of the tenth Conference on Hot Laboratories and Equipment:

     (4) The time required to decan the elements should be minimized due to the highly reactive nature of the exposed fuel even in the inert atmosphere of the cell. Remote Repair. The decanning machine is to be remotely operated, [...]

   • 1965, Argonne National Laboratory, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Reactor Development Program Progress Report

     A machine to decan the blanket elements contained in the core, outer, and inner blanket subassemblies is being designed. The machine will consist of transfer magazines, a cutting unit, an ejector unit and a sampling unit.

   • 1996, Journal of Engineering for Industry

     Can Design for Nonisothermal Pancake Forging of Gamma Titanium Aluminide Alloys

     The design of cans to produce [...]. After decanning, the pancakes revealed "flaky" and sporadically cracked flat surfaces, noticeable dead metal zones at the [...]

   • 2011, Frank Crundwell, Michael Moats, Venkoba Ramachandran, Timothy Robinson, W. G. Davenport, Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum Group Metals, Elsevier (?ISBN), page 539:

     (a) collecting end-of-use automobiles; (b) dismantling them into major components, including batteries and catalytic converters; (c) decanning the converters by shearing the cans crossways into two halves; (d) [...]

Anagrams

• Caden, Dance, acned, caned, dance

Esperanto

Adjective

decan

1. accusative singular of deca