destejer

The literal opposite of tejer (to weave) — to unweave or unravel fabric, and figuratively to undo work already done. The verb is inseparable from Homer's Odyssey: Penelope famously wove a burial shroud by day and secretly unwove it (destejía) each night to stall her suitors while awaiting Ulysses' return, making tejer y destejer a lasting image for stalling tactics or endless, undone effort.

• Penélope tejía de día y destejía de noche. — Penelope wove by day and unwove by night.
• Tuvo que destejer varias filas para corregir el error. — She had to unravel several rows to fix the mistake.
• El proyecto avanza y retrocede, como quien teje y desteje. — The project moves forward and backward, like someone weaving and unweaving.

Missing the literary allusion — tejer y destejer specifically echoes Penelope's stalling strategy in the Odyssey, so using it signals "doing and undoing the same work indefinitely," not just literal unraveling of thread.

Often confused with tejer.

• book Odisea (Penélope's shroud) — In Homer's Odyssey, Penelope stalls her suitors for years by weaving a burial shroud for Laertes by day and secretly unweaving it every night, promising to choose a husband once it's finished — the origin of the enduring Spanish image tejer y destejer.