To unlace means to undo or loosen the laces of something, typically shoes or boots. When you unlace your sneakers after soccer practice, you pull the laces through the eyelets to loosen them so you can slip your feet out. It's the opposite of lacing something up.

The word usually refers to shoes, but you might also unlace a corset (a tight-fitting garment that was popular centuries ago), hockey skates, or anything else held together by laces threaded through holes. In historical fiction, you might read about a character unlacing their boots after a long journey or unlacing a leather bag to see what's inside.

Sometimes unlace appears in a more poetic or figurative way, meaning to unfasten or release something. A writer might describe someone unlacing their fingers after holding hands tightly together, or a knight unlacing their armor after battle. The image suggests a slow, deliberate unfastening, one loop at a time.