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
"You emasculate little boys and who's going to don the next police uniform?" the man had asked.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2023
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
When Martha calls in the local vet to fix some of the tomcats hanging around, Ernest accuses her of trying to emasculate him.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 30, 2018
Every modification of the first vigorous touch is bound to weaken and sometimes to emasculate….
From The Common Law by Robert W. (Robert William) Chambers
“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
Castration has a strange effect: it emasculates both man, beast, and bird, and brings them to a near resemblance of the other sex.
From The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 2 by Henry Morley
It seems to me the premise is flawed—that men are either emasculated or overly macho.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
That's because, Chung explains, influencers and politicians are "tapping into people's grievances" and "trying to recapture some of the feelings of being emasculated by the younger generation".
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 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
He thought that the assertive Congress of the 1970s had gone too far and had emasculated the presidency, making it nearly impossible for the president to get things done.
From Salon ● Nov. 7, 2025
He somehow manages to flash a cool smile, even in his most emasculated state.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
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
So expressing gratitude, much less holding women in respect, is experienced as emasculating.
From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2026
These deficiencies made it hard for him to advance in his epic fights with Mr. Cuomo, who was engaged in a persistent project of emasculating him.
From New York Times ● Dec. 23, 2021
She criticizes him in front of his friends in really emasculating ways.
From Slate ● Apr. 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.
