What's the difference between unpick and unravel?

Unpick


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To pick out; to undo by picking.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) However in a repeat of the current standoff over the federal budget, the conservative wing of the Republican party is threatening to exploit its leverage over raising the debt ceiling to unpick Obama's healthcare reforms.
  • (2) The task of unpicking exactly what type of gap in intelligence that the surveillance-savvy and well-organised bombers were able to slip through will take time, but it holds the key to preventing further Islamic State attacks.
  • (3) Somewhere like Ketchum – mind you, that can get pretty bumpin’ in winter.” We unpicked this slowly.
  • (4) This is not a deal that Walmart can suddenly unpick: it was announced in June and completed recently, approved by Massmart's international investors.
  • (5) The new deal thrashed out in a hurry in the small hours by the three main political parties – now, at last, having a common conversation – insisted on "underpinning" the pantomime horse of charter with a requirement that it could only be unpicked or amended by a two-thirds vote of parliament.
  • (6) When Labour was returned to power in 1997, many of us were optimistic that its virtual three-term majority afforded it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring forth a programme of socially progressive legislation that, if planned carefully, would prove difficult for future right-wing Tory administrations to unpick.
  • (7) The structure of the new ministry took some unpicking - but I assume at this stage that an administrative arrangements order will make sense of which portfolio bits have gone where.
  • (8) Even the House of Lords couldn’t stomach Osborne’s tax credit cuts | Polly Toynbee Read more In the immediate aftermath of the budget Osborne seemed to have pulled off his conjuring trick, but as often with budgets the IFS and others started to unpick the impact of his work.
  • (9) "The contracts are not due to be signed until May [and] anyone looking to sign one should understand that we'll do all we can to legally unpick them if David Cameron enters No 10.
  • (10) There are many flaws in the government case which a determined opposition will unpick between now and the next general election in 2020.
  • (11) Weissmann formerly led the FBI’s fraud unit and the taskforce that unpicked the complex financial dealings of Enron, after the giant energy corporation collapsed in December 2001.
  • (12) As long [ago] as it is, we will get to the bottom of it.” Pressed on whether he believes there was a Westminster-based paedophile ring, as has been alleged, Hogan-Howe said: “I don’t think we know yet.” Investigations into historical allegations contain “so much that’s difficult to unpick”, he added, with “some twists and turns” that are vital to the outcome of the case.
  • (13) Is there the staff and experience available to start unpicking it?” Dougal said cuts at Westminster were already affecting the Scottish fishing community’s relationship both with Defra and the EU.
  • (14) Such a move would, he said, be "part privatisation by stealth" and be impossible to unpick, resulting in a loss of value for taxpayers that ultimately own the organisation.
  • (15) At the frontline, the picture is murkier but richer: there's plenty of data (at least in acute settings) but this is rarely uncontested and often hard to unpick.
  • (16) Mackay warns against trying to unpick the complexities of the language.
  • (17) But the work penalty shows it may at least be possible to begin unpicking their electoral coalition.
  • (18) But it did not take long for the financial markets to unpick the Brussels agreement.
  • (19) Most commentators agree that if the UK votes to leave the EU, it will trigger a huge wave of parliamentary legislation, to unpick our UK laws from those of the EU.
  • (20) But the purpose of such sites is notoriously difficult to unpick.

Unravel


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To disentangle; to disengage or separate the threads of; as, to unravel a stocking.
  • (v. t.) Hence, to clear from complication or difficulty; to unfold; to solve; as, to unravel a plot.
  • (v. t.) To separate the connected or united parts of; to throw into disorder; to confuse.
  • (v. i.) To become unraveled, in any sense.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) However, as the plan unravels, Professor Marcus's team turn on one another, with painfully (if painfully funny) results.
  • (2) Her black persona unravelled this week when Ruthanne and Larry Dolezal, a couple named on her Montana birth certificate as her biological parents, told Spokane’s KREM 2 News that her ancestry was German and Czech, with traces of Native American.
  • (3) Putting all this information together we can begin to unravel the problem of how the Listeria forms the cytoskeleton and what is the biological purpose of this tail.
  • (4) Thus, 14.7K appears to be a general inhibitor of TNF cytolysis, and as such should be an important tool in unraveling the mechanism of TNF cytolysis.
  • (5) This communication reviews the almost 40 years of studies by Jack Metcoff, MD, and coworkers to unravel the causes of fetal malnutrition and their efforts to prevent it.
  • (6) Because the housing crisis goes far beyond us Focus E15 mums | Jasmin Stone Read more Annette May, 68, from Lambeth Annette May has watched with mounting dismay as the community fabric of the council estate where she has lived for 44 years steadily unravels.
  • (7) Substantial progress has been made in unraveling the organization of the circadian system of Aplysia californica.
  • (8) The free ends of the microtubules appear unraveled; they are seen first as single elements, then as doublets, and finally are arranged into a cylinder.
  • (9) Unraveled filaments reconstituted from NF-L plus either NF-M or NF-H indicated that NF-M and NF-H are incorporated evenly into each protofibril.
  • (10) Athens was unravelling into chaos, unable to form a government and forced into fresh elections , plunging the markets into freefall as Europe's leaders abandoned any pretence that a Greek exit from the euro might not be imminent.
  • (11) The chancellor leaves the Treasury trying to hide the cost of his mistakes while his reputation for economic competence continues to unravel."
  • (12) With the eurozone unravelling and world markets in turmoil, threatening even the meagre recovery the UK economy had achieved since the onset of the credit crunch, he repeatedly evokes a mood of national emergency to explain why the coalition he forged with David Cameron is the right government for the times.
  • (13) Without a rescue, president Nicos Anastasiades said Cyprus would default and threaten to unravel investor confidence in the eurozone.
  • (14) This section was memorably captured by the computer and security expert Caspar Bowden , who wrote: "Interpreting that section requires the unravelling of a triple-nested inversion of meanings across six cross-referenced subsections, linked to a dozen other cross-linked definitions, which are all dependent on a highly ambiguous 'notwithstanding'."
  • (15) If the statistics aren't right the whole story, beautiful as it is, unravels," he said.
  • (16) But sometimes a smile is not enough.” As the latest proposed deal to avoid Greece’s bankruptcy threatens to unravel , a row is raging on Rhodes and several other Greek islands over fears that they are being unfairly targeted.
  • (17) George Osborne’s claim that the government secured a major corporation tax deal with Google appear to be unravelling after it emerged that a quarter of the £130m recovered by HM Revenue & Customs related to the US company’s share options scheme.
  • (18) I have lived in Greece my whole life and experienced the economic crisis as it unraveled the past years.
  • (19) As the field of human genetics successfully continues to unravel the secrets of an individual's genetic makeup, the social processes of stigmatization and ostracism of those with "undesirable" traits have the potential to increase.
  • (20) There's got to be a deal here between the taxpayer and the scheme member and that deal is going to unravel if the people in the public sector say they will not contemplate change."

Words possibly related to "unpick"