circumcise
Americanverb (used with object)
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to remove the prepuce of (a male), especially as a religious rite.
-
to remove the clitoris, prepuce, or labia of (a female).
-
to purify spiritually.
verb
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to remove the foreskin of (a male)
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to incise surgically the skin over the clitoris of (a female)
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to remove the clitoris of (a female)
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to perform the religious rite of circumcision on (someone)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has circumcisedperfect 3rd person singular
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have circumcisedperfect
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is circumcisingprogressive 3rd person singular
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am circumcisingprogressive 1st person singular
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have been circumcisingperfect progressive
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has been circumcisingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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circumcisingparticiple
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are circumcisingprogressive
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circumcisessingular 3rd person
Past
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had circumcisedperfect
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circumcisedparticiple
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had been circumcisingperfect progressive
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circumcisedsimple
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were circumcisingprogressive plural
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was circumcisingprogressive singular
Future
Etymology
Origin of circumcise
1200–50; Middle English circumcisen < Latin circumcīsus (past participle of circumcīdere to cut around), equivalent to circum- circum- + -cīsus ( -cīd- cut + -tus past participle suffix; see -cide)
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.
This was when piracy was at its peak and she had just given birth to a son, whom they wanted to circumcise.
From BBC • Dec. 21, 2024
We can all see the circumcision data, but some of us will circumcise our kids and some of us won't, because there are small pluses and small minuses and preferences are important.
From Salon • Aug. 3, 2021
She missed the opportunity to present the readership some basic facts, for example that not only Jews circumcise males.
From Washington Post • Mar. 20, 2020
Her lyrics are often clever throughout: “Don’t circumcise my circumstance,” she sings in one song.
From Washington Times • Jan. 30, 2020
You know, they’d let him circumcise children too.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
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.
