emasculate
Americanverb (used with object)
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emasculates,
present (3rd person singular)
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emasculated,
past participle, past
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emasculating
present participle
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to deprive of strength; weaken.
The law was emasculated by its opponents, making it largely ineffective by the time it was passed.
- Synonyms:
- soften, devitalize, undermine, debilitate
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to make (a man) feel less masculine.
Though some men might feel emasculated not making an income, I'm very happy as a stay-at-home father.
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to remove the testicles of; castrate.
adjective
verb
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to remove the testicles of; castrate; geld
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to deprive of vigour, effectiveness, etc
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botany to remove the stamens from (a flower) to prevent self-pollination for the purposes of plant breeding
adjective
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castrated; gelded
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deprived of strength, effectiveness, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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emasculationnoun
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emasculatornoun
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self-emasculationnoun
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emasculativeadjective
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emasculatoryadjective
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unemasculatedadjective
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unemasculativeadjective
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unemasculatoryadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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emasculatesimple
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emasculatessimple
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have emasculatedperfect
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has emasculatedperfect
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am emasculatingprogressive
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are emasculatingprogressive
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is emasculatingprogressive
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have been emasculatingperfect progressive
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has been emasculatingperfect progressive
Past
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emasculatedsimple
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had emasculatedperfect
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was emasculatingprogressive
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were emasculatingprogressive
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had been emasculatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of emasculate
First recorded in 1600–10; from Latin ēmasculātus (past participle of ēmasculāre ), equivalent to ē- “from”+ māscul(us) “male” + -ātus adjective suffix; see origin at e- 1, male, -ate 1
Explanation
When you emasculate something or someone, you take away its strength. Some people believe that having a tough female boss can emasculate male employees. The Latin emasculatus literally means "to castrate," though it is usually used figuratively, the same way emasculate is sometimes used to suggest a man isn't very manly. You may have seen bullies hassle a guy, saying he can't beat up anyone, or hit a curveball, or. . .you get the idea. Such emasculating is also insulting to women because it suggests strength and female are opposites.
Vocabulary lists containing emasculate
Dry
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In the Country We Love
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"Trying to Find Chinatown" by David Henry Hwang
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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:
That dynamic was taboo for generations of Americans who feared it might emasculate men and ruin couples’ romantic lives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2025
It's childish and weird to act like even looking at a tampon box will emasculate you.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2024
The British attempted to correct the problem by using another lubricant, but Indian troops remained suspicious and some began to believe the British were intentionally using lubricants made of offensive materials to emasculate the sepoys.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
Or they came from players, who used the barbs as a way to emasculate or demean the opponents across from them.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2018
And if the British Navy can somehow emasculate Wilhelmshaven and Heligoland I shall not complain that its behavior has been purely doctrinaire.
From New York Times, Current History, Vol 1, Issue 1 From the Beginning to March, 1915 With Index by Various
“One guy presents himself as a kind of salt of the earth, a person you could hang out with, and then effectively emasculates the other by presenting them as the opposite.”
From New York Times ● Nov. 1, 2020
“I wanted a gender pronoun that was fun, and that immediately emasculates you—because you can’t roll your eyes and say ‘judy’ without being camp,” Mac told the Guardian during the “24-Decade” run.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 20, 2019
New York artist Cassady Benson illustrated a new version of this fowl emperor that emasculates him by removing his rooster comb and turning him into a round hen guarding a mysterious egg.
From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2017
Eichhorst thinks he’s won the Lumen, allegedly the key to worldwide vampire eradication, but Palmer publicly emasculates him by yanking funds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2015
It not infrequently happens that, as in the case of the Electoral Reform Bill of 1910, the lower house so emasculates a measure as to compel the Government to withdraw it.
From The Governments of Europe by Frederic Austin Ogg
It seems to me the premise is flawed—that men are either emasculated or overly macho.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
Allow me to weigh in here, given that you mentioned it in your letter: It’s not your job to reduce your life savings or net worth so your husband doesn’t feel threatened or emasculated.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 22, 2026
“I love the contrast of, like, just the most powerful icon, and then … me! The guy who typically plays emasculated sidekicks!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2024
It's a truth that should be self-evident: If you are emasculated by a balloon, you weren't so tough to begin with.
From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2023
She got an emasculated carrot, a droopy leaf of celery, a soft tomato and a fresh sprig of parsley.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Poor Mr. Biswas, a man of meager prospects but irrepressible pride, must suffer through a series of demeaning dwellings to which his in-laws, the emasculating Tulsis, confine him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
“It would’ve been criminal to not embrace this, especially since male Asian leads are still so rare in Hollywood — ones that aren’t just the sidekicks or portrayed as stereotypical, emasculating jokes.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2021
A new entertainment technology, TV, was emasculating cinema as a cultural force, and film studios had started to fossilize into bottom line-oriented businesses.
From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2020
Other research shows that American men find environmentalism to be inherently feminine and therefore emasculating, and view being deliberately anti-environmental as a way to feel more masculine.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2019
Between 1867 and 1871, he pushed himself even harder, growing thousands of hawkweeds in another patch of garden, emasculating the flowers with the same forceps, and dusting pollen with the same paintbrush.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
