circumcise
Americanverb (used with object)
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circumcises,
present (3rd person singular)
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circumcised,
past participle, past
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circumcising
present participle
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to remove the prepuce of (a male), especially as a religious rite.
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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
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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circumcisesimple
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circumcisessimple
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have circumcisedperfect
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has circumcisedperfect
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am circumcisingprogressive
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are circumcisingprogressive
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is circumcisingprogressive
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have been circumcisingperfect progressive
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has been circumcisingperfect progressive
Past
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circumcisedsimple
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had circumcisedperfect
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was circumcisingprogressive
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were circumcisingprogressive
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had been circumcisingperfect progressive
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.
See Examples For:
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
For some families, the decision about whether to circumcise a boy is a cultural or religious decision, while others may consider hygiene or social reasons.
From Fox News ● Jan. 7, 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
Because of the lack of information, the U.S. is the only country that circumcises most of its male infants for nonreligious reasons.
From Time Magazine Archive
As he stands on a rise of ground, Maunakalika, with his robe Hakaula, and his mat Ikuwa, she circumcises Palila and returns with him to Alanapo.
From The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai by Martha Warren Beckwith
Cir′cumciser, one who circumcises; Circumci′sion, the act of circumcising.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
She said furthermore, "As my son hath removed my reproach, so Joshua, his descendant, will roll away a reproach from the Israelites, when he circumcises them beyond Jordan."
From The Legends of the Jews — Volume 1 by Henrietta Szold
So Noureddin gave him leave, whereupon another rose and said, 'O my lord, I wish to go to my brother, for he circumcises his son to-day.'
From The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume I by John Payne
“There’s two studies that show children who were circumcised early have double the rate of autism,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2025
Specifically, he said, the study relied on a tiny sample of Muslim boys circumcised in hospitals rather than at home -- the dominant cultural practice.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2025
"My husband was thinking that if he caught a shark then we could pay to have the baby circumcised," she tells the BBC, clearly still distressed about his death.
From BBC ● Dec. 21, 2024
He appears at ceremonies where circumcised boys are taught cultural practices, including discipline and respect.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 26, 2021
It’s just that Stephen Kellner isn’t circumcised, and even though it was ubiquitous in Iran, Mom thought it was important for the son to look like the father.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
The MBMBaM wiki has a list of all the “Final Questions”: “What are the benefits of circumcising a hamster?”
From Slate ● Apr. 9, 2021
Even for some progressive Jews, circumcising a son and holding a bris remains a quintessential part of being a Jewish parent.
From New York Times ● Jul. 25, 2017
They go to that area to escape the law and after circumcising their children, they bring them back.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 1, 2015
Advocates say that in recent years doctors have begun making clandestine visits to villages, arriving at night and often under the guise of circumcising boys.
From Newsweek ● Mar. 17, 2015
Was it their duty to abandon the practices by which they had been wont to regulate their lives and abstain from circumcising their children or teaching them to keep the law?
From The Life of St. Paul by James Stalker
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.
