castrate
Americanverb (used with object)
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castrates,
present (3rd person singular)
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castrated,
past participle, past
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castrating
present participle
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to remove the testes of; emasculate; geld.
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to remove the ovaries of.
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Psychology. to render impotent, literally or metaphorically, by psychological means, especially by threatening a person's masculinity or femininity.
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to deprive of strength, power, or efficiency; weaken.
Without those ten new submarines, our navy will be castrated.
noun
verb
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to remove the testicles of; emasculate; geld
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to deprive of vigour, masculinity, etc
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to remove the ovaries of; spay
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to expurgate or censor (a book, play, etc)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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castratesimple
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castratessimple
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have castratedperfect
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has castratedperfect
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am castratingprogressive
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are castratingprogressive
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is castratingprogressive
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have been castratingperfect progressive
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has been castratingperfect progressive
Past
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castratedsimple
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had castratedperfect
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was castratingprogressive
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were castratingprogressive
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had been castratingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of castrate
First recorded in 1605–15; from Latin castrātus, past participle of castrāre “to geld,” equivalent to castr- “geld” + -ātus past participle suffix; see -ate 1
Explanation
To castrate a male animal is to surgically remove its testicles. A veterinarian castrates a male dog to ensure that it can't mate with a female and produce unwanted puppies. People often choose to castrate pets or farm animals to keep them from reproducing. Castrate is one of several words used to refer to this process; most pet owners prefer terms such as neuter or fix. Castrate comes from a Latin root, castrare, which means not just "to castrate," but also "to prune." The word has also come to mean "to take away strength."
Vocabulary lists containing castrate
Ender's Game
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While the World Watched
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
So Cumberbatch spent considerable time in Montana learning cowboy skills — riding, braiding rope, rolling cigarettes, even how to castrate a bull.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2021
She also helped vaccinate and castrate calves on his family’s farm without any squeamishness.
From New York Times ● Oct. 15, 2021
The anxiety of influence can trigger hysterical pastiche or castrate an author’s creativity.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 28, 2020
“Lay people can castrate and dehorn, but they don’t always recognize if an animal is sick,” he said.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 21, 2020
They would not castrate or shear animals unless the moon was right, and they would not gather crops or save next year’s seeds unless the moon dictated.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
She was also impressed with the opening scene, in which a rancher castrates a bull.
From New York Times ● Nov. 16, 2021
His wife, infinitely more resolute, castrates him verbally: “What, quite unmann’d in folly?”
From The Guardian ● Apr. 19, 2016
Cordyceps fungus, or the neuro-hijacking barnacle of crabs, Sacculina, who castrates the female crab and takes advantage of its parenting.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 27, 2013
At day six, the castrates are permanent transsexuals.
From Time Magazine Archive
The skull and brain of castrates, animal and human, is smaller than the average.
From The Glands Regulating Personality by Louis Berman M.D.
Gem was gelded, or castrated, as a young horse, a common practice for competition horses, because it generally makes them calmer, safer and more manageable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
Some historical records, including data from Korean Eunuchs in the pre-19th century Chosun Dynasty, suggest that castrated men lived about 18 percent longer than men who were not castrated.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 16, 2026
It will be adapted from Anne Rice's 1982 novel, which is set in the 18th Century world of the "castrati" - male singing stars who were castrated to preserve their high voices.
From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2025
In their heyday, Handel’s operas almost always involved castrati, singers who were castrated as boys to preserve their higher voices but still gained the full lung capacity and overall stamina of grown men.
From New York Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
A teenage boy bawling into the silence of an empty church—now that’s a pretty horrific sound, right up there with the moans of a freshly castrated hyena.
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
Jason and Travis Kelce started the season talking about castrating bulls on their new podcast.
From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2023
The Squeal Award got its name from Ms. Ernst’s 2014 campaign video where she said she grew up on a farm castrating pigs, and vowed to make Washington’s big-spenders shriek the same way.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 29, 2022
“I bet Harriet Hageman ran around and, when they were castrating the cow, she was carrying the bucket,” Jacobson said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2022
Phil may act tough castrating a bull with his bare hands, but he becomes vulnerable when he and Peter share a few friendly, tender moments.
From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2022
Feeding and watering and shearing and lambing and even castrating and butchering, I do all these things.
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
