dévider

A concrete verb from spinning and weaving: to unwind thread, wire, or cable from a spool (dévider une bobine de fil). It survives in the everyday fixed expression dévider son chapelet, to reel off a long list of things one has to say.

• Elle dévide la bobine de fil pour coudre l'ourlet. — She unwinds the spool of thread to sew the hem.
• Le pêcheur dévide sa ligne avant de la ranger. — The fisherman reels out his line before putting it away.
• Il a dévidé tout son chapelet de reproches sans s'arrêter. — He reeled off his whole list of complaints without stopping.

Outside sewing, weaving, or fishing, learners rarely meet the literal sense — the expression dévider son chapelet is worth learning on its own, since it's far more common than the literal spool-unwinding meaning.

• expression Dévider son chapelet — A fixed French idiom, from the rosary beads passed one by one through the fingers during prayer, meaning to recount a long list of grievances or facts one after another without stopping.