Word.ws English Dictionary

unmanning

unmanning is the present participle and gerund of unman.

Meaning of unman

Verb

unman (third-person singular simple present unmans, present participle unmanning, simple past and past participle unmanned)

  1. (archaic, transitive) To divest of humanity.
    • Unman not therefore thy self by a beastial transformation, nor realize old Fables.1881, Sir Thomas Browne, William Alexander Greenhill, Religio Medici; Letter to a Friend; Christian Morals, page 215
  2. (archaic, transitive) To castrate; to remove the manhood of.
    • He unmanned himself under a pine-tree and bled to death on the spot.1906, James George Frazer, Attis, Otis, Osiris, volume 1, page 264
    Synonyms:
    emasculate
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To sap (a person) of the strength, whether physical or emotional, required to deal with a situation.
    • I hope to God his theories will not unman him in action, that he will not be musing and refining when he should be leading the Jacks […]1855, William Delafield Arnold, Oakfield: Or, Fellowship in the East, page 280
    Synonyms:
    emasculate
  4. (transitive) To deprive of men.

Adjective

unmanning (comparative more unmanning, superlative most unmanning)

  1. That destroys manly virtues or qualities; that renders effeminate or helpless.
    • Blanford did not see quite how; but her sweet enthusiasm was so warming, and the tang of her kiss so unmanning that he found himself nodding agreement.1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 407

Noun

unmanning (plural unmannings)

  1. The removal of manly qualities.
    • Schreber's transformation into a woman begins internally, in terms of thoughts and sensations and nerves. Only then does it begin to manifest itself externally. In this respect, Schreber mentions two brief unmannings in the asylum.2004, Michael Vannoy Adams, The Fantasy Principle: Psychoanalysis of the Imagination, page 106

Forms of unmanning

Adjective
comparativemore unmanning
superlativemost unmanning
Noun
pluralunmannings

Origin of unmanning

From unman + -ing.

Questions about unmanning

What does unmanning mean?
Unmanning means that destroys manly virtues or qualities; that renders effeminate or helpless.
What is unmanning the present participle and gerund of?
Unmanning is the present participle and gerund of unman.
What part of speech is unmanning?
Unmanning can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near unmanning in the dictionary

  1. unmanneredly
  2. unmannerliness
  3. unmannerly
  4. unmanners
  5. unmanneth
  6. unmanning
  7. unmannings
  8. unmannosylated
  9. unmanoeuvrability
  10. unmanoeuvrable
  11. unmanoeuvreable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unmanning (page history and authors); unman (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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Cite this entry: “unmanning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unmanning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.