emasculate

Syllables: emas·cu·late/ɪˈmask.jʊlˌeɪt/US/əˈmæs.kjəˌleɪt/

emasculate verb: to deprive of virile or procreative power; to castrate, to geld.

Image: Laurie & Whittle (publishers), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Verb

emasculate (third-person singular simple present emasculates, present participle emasculating, simple past and past participle emasculated)

(transitive) To deprive of virile or procreative power; to castrate, to geld.
- Castration has a ſtrange effect; it emaſculates both man, beaſt and bird, and brings them to a near reſemblance of the other ſex. Thus, eunuchs have ſmooth unmuſcular arms, thighs, and legs; and broad hips, and beardleſs chins, and ſqueaking voices. Gelt stags and bucks have hornleſs heads, like...1789, Gilbert White, “Letter XXXII. To the Same [Daines Barrington].”, in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of Southampton: With Engravings, and an Appendix, London...
- At Athens the Prieſts and Prieſteſſes were drawn by lot, from the men and virgins of diſtinguiſhed family and irreproachable life. Maimed or deformed perſons were not admitted, and purity and chaſtity were ſo particularly required, that the Prieſts frequently uſed means to emaſculate themselves.1793, T[homas] Wilson, “Priest”, in An Archæological Dictionary; or, Classical Antiquities of the Jews, Greeks, and Romans, Alphabetically Arranged: …, 2nd edition, London: Printed for D. Ogilvy [et...
Synonyms:

unman
1. (specifically, transitive) To remove the entire male genitalia (the testicles, scrotum, and penis) of (a person or animal).
(transitive) To deprive of masculine vigor or spirit; to weaken; to render effeminate; to vitiate by unmanly softness.
- [H]is Majeſty [...] is now reſolved (in proſecution of his priſtine Counſels) by force or policy to diſſolve this Parliament in diſcontent, as he hath done all former, and that with ſuch advantages of a generall ill opinion of Parliaments in the ignorant miſ-informed vulgar on the one hand, and of...1643, William Prynne, “The Soveraigne Power of Parliaments & Kingdomes. […]”, in The Soveraigne Power of Parliaments and Kingdomes: […], London: […] Michael Sparke Senior, →OCLC, page 29
- A hardy race, in ungenial climates, with nerves ſtrung by the northern blaſt, though little refined by knowledge, felt in an early age, the ſentiments of manly virtue, and ſpurned the baſeneſs of ſlavery. Luxury had not emaſculated their minds; and they threw off, with native elaſticity, the burden...1795, [Vicesimus Knox], “Section II. Oriental Manners, and the Ideas Imbibed in Youth, both in the West and East Indies, Favourable to the Spirit of Depotism”, in The Spirit of Despotism, London...
Synonyms:

unman, debilitate, demasculate, enervate, enfeeble

Antonyms:

empower, invigorate, masculate, strengthen
(transitive) Of a flower: to deprive of the anthers.
- It is well understood that in artificial cross-fertilizing, in order to prevent self-fecundation, we emasculate the flower from which we wish to obtain the seeds for new varieties; that is, we remove the anthers from that flower, and in the proper season apply to the stigma the pollen from some...1854 March, Charles G[rafton] Page, “Article IV. Artificial Fecundation of Flowers. [From the American Polytechnic Journal.]”, in M. Tarver, H. Cobb, editors, The Western Journal and Civilian...
- Legume flowers are emasculated by removing the corolla, staminal tube, and anthers with small forceps, leaving the pistil intact. Anthers and pollen are sometimes removed from flowers with suction, washed off with a jet of water, or killed by immersing the flower in an alcohol solution or hot...1987, John Milton Poehlman, “Breeding Forage Crops”, in Breeding Field Crops (An AVI Book), 3rd edition, New York, N.Y.: Springer Science+Business Media, →DOI, →ISBN, page 639

Adjective

emasculate (comparative more emasculate, superlative most emasculate)

Deprived of virility or vigor; unmanned, weak.
- If the Icelander in his native climate ever ſhould experience the impulſe of a painter's genius, the year itſelf would not ſupply many hours in which his fingers could obey its ſummons; and in the other extremity of climate, where every fibre is unſtrung by relaxation, all, who have experienced...1782, Richard Cumberland, Anecdotes of Eminent Painters in Spain, during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries; with Cursory Remarks upon the Present Stateof Arts in that Kingdom. … In Two Volumes...
- Thence as he glanc'd his eye, far other form / And much unfit for war he next eſpied, / Chemos, the ſin of Moab; power obſcene, / Emaſculate and ſoft, in looſe attire / A ſenſual deity; his glory 'twas / In arts of baſe ſeduction to excel, / And leagu'd with harlots to have turn'd the heart, / Of...1794, Richard Cumberland, “Book I. The Assembling of the Devils.”, in Calvary, or The Death of Christ. A Poem, in Eight Books, Dublin: Printed by Robert Napper, for B. Dugdale, No. 150, Capel-Street...

emasculate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Malay

emasculate in Tamil

ஆண்மை நீக்கு, காயடி, விதையடி, விரைவாங்கு

emasculate in Malayalam

debilitate, weaken, enfeeble: ശക്തി ക്ഷയിപ്പിക്കുക, ക്ഷീണിപ്പിക്കുക, തളർക്കുക, ബലക്ഷയം വരുത്തുക, മുരയ്ക്കുക, അശക്തമാക്കുക
castrate, desex, neuter: ഷണ്ഡനാക്കുക, വരിഉടയ്ക്കുക, വൃഷണം ഉടയ്ക്കുക, വൃഷണം ഛേദിക്കുക, കപ്പാരിക്കുക, വൃഷണം ഉടച്ച് ഉല്പാദനശേഷി ഇല്ലാതാക്കുക

emasculate in Malay

deprived of virility or vigor: kembiri, kasi

Examples of emasculate in a sentence

Castration has a ſtrange effect; it emaſculates both man, beaſt and bird, and brings them to a near reſemblance of the other ſex.1789, Gilbert White, “Letter XXXII. To the Same [Daines Barrington].”, in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of...
Luxury had not emaſculated their minds; and they threw off, with native elaſticity, the burden of unjuſt dominion.1795, [Vicesimus Knox], “Section II. Oriental Manners, and the Ideas Imbibed in Youth, both in the West and East Indies, Favourable to the...
The wicked black son Ham (Châm), emasculates his father [...].1877, Ignaz Goldziher [i.e., Ignác Goldziher], “The Most Prominent Figures in Hebrew Mythology”, in Russell Martineau, transl., Mythology...
The feisty wife of a world-renowned Russian sculptor emasculated an armed thug outside her Soho home — saying he “didn’t have the cojones to shoot her,” police sources said yesterday.2013 July 10, Daniel Prendergast, “‘You don’t have the cojones’: 54-year-old woman fronts up to would-be muggers who pointed gun at her...

All 10 example sentences with emasculate

Synonyms of emasculate

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of emasculate

Forms of emasculate

Verb
third-person singular present	emasculates
present participle	emasculating
past participle	emasculated
past	emasculated
Adjective
comparative	more emasculate
superlative	most emasculate

Origin of emasculate

From Medieval Latin ēmasculātus, perfect passive participle of ēmasculō (“to emasculate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ē(x)- (“out, from, apart”) + masculus (“male, masculine”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), further from mās (“a man, a male”) + -culus (diminutive suffix).

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin ēmasculātus (more at Etymology 1), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

Words formed from emasculate

Questions about emasculate

What does emasculate mean?: Emasculate means to deprive of virile or procreative power; to castrate, to geld.
What is emasculate in Tamil?: Emasculate in Tamil is ஆண்மை நீக்கு, காயடி, விதையடி. See Emasculate meaning in Tamil.
How do you use emasculate in a sentence?: Castration has a ſtrange effect; it emaſculates both man, beaſt and bird, and brings them to a near reſemblance of the other ſex.
What part of speech is emasculate?: Emasculate can be a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce emasculate?: Emasculate is pronounced /ɪˈmask.jʊlˌeɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of emasculate?: The past tense of emasculate is emasculated.

Words near emasculate in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: emasculate (page history and authors); emasculate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); emasculate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); emasculate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-emasculate.wav, en-au-emasculate.ogg.

Cite this entry: “emasculate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/emasculate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.