devirginate
/diːˈvɜː(ɹ)dʒɪneɪt/
devirginate verb: to deprive of virginity; to deflower.
Verb
devirginate (third-person singular simple present devirginates, present participle devirginating, simple past and past participle devirginated)
- To deprive of virginity; to deflower.
- a profligate Christian attempted to devirginate a Maid, but the Mother being present, resisted him, and endeavouring to free her from his intended Rape, whereat the Spaniard enrag'd, cut off her Hand with a short Sword, and stab'd the Virgin in several places, till she Expir'd1552, Bartolomé de las Casas, “Chapter 11”, in A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies
- The Troians retire to their walls, and the Grecians to their Camp, when Achilles at a feſtivall relates the wonderfull story of Cygnus; which is paralell'd by Neſtor with another of Ceneus, once a maid, then called Cænis and devirginated by Neptune […]1621-1626, George Sandys, Upon the twelfth book of Ovid's Metamorphosis, in Metamorphosis (Translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses)
Adjective
IPA/diːˈvɜː(ɹ)dʒɪnət/
devirginate (not comparable)
- Deprived of virginity.
- Fair Hero, left devirginate,
Weighs and with fury wails her state:
But with her love and woman wit
She argues, and approveth it.1598, George Chapman, “Third Sestyad”, in Christopher Marlow[e], George Chapman, edited by S[amuel] W[eller] Singer, Hero and Leander. A Poem. […] (Select Early English Poets; VIII), Chiswick...
- Fair Hero, left devirginate,
Forms of devirginate
| third-person singular present | devirginates |
|---|---|
| present participle | devirginating |
| past participle | devirginated |
| past | devirginated |
Origin of devirginate
First attested in 1583; borrowed from Latin dēvirginātus, perfect passive participle of dēvirginō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix).
First attested in c. 1470, in Middle English; inherited from Middle English devirginat(e), borrowed from Latin dēvirginātus, see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.
Words formed from devirginate
Questions about devirginate
- What does devirginate mean?
- Devirginate means to deprive of virginity; to deflower.
- What part of speech is devirginate?
- Devirginate can be a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce devirginate?
- Devirginate is pronounced /diːˈvɜː(ɹ)dʒɪneɪt/.
- What is the past tense of devirginate?
- The past tense of devirginate is devirginated.
Words near devirginate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: devirginate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-devirginate.wav.
Cite this entry: “devirginate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/devirginate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
