Meaning & use
unsee
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Meaning
verbtransitiveinformal
To stop having an image or memory in your mind after seeing something, usually said as impossible.
Grammar: Takes an object and is most often used after cannot, could not, or want to: cannot unsee it.
Patterns
- cannot unsee something
- wish you could unsee something
- try to unsee something
Once you notice the coffee stain on the poster, you cannot unsee it.
I wish I could unsee the last ten seconds of that video.
The mistake is small, but after reading your comment, I cannot unsee it.
Common combinations
- cannot unsee something
- The typo in the title is tiny, yet readers cannot unsee it.
- wish you could unsee something
- After the presentation, she wished she could unsee the broken chart.
- unsee an image
- He joked that therapy could not help him unsee the image.
Synonyms and how they differ
- forget
- Forget is broader and means losing any memory; unsee specifically means undoing the effect of having seen something.
- ignore
- Ignore means choosing not to pay attention, while unsee suggests the visual detail keeps forcing itself into awareness.
Opposites
Commonly confused: unsee or unseen?
unsee vs unseen
Unseen is an adjective meaning not seen or hidden; unsee is a joking verb about removing a sight from memory.
Practice
Choose the best word: After noticing the flaw, I could not ___ it.
Choose one answer.
Unsee fits because the sentence means making a seen detail mentally vanish; ignore means not attending to it, but the flaw has still been seen.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unsee”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.