geld
1 Americanverb (used with object)
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to castrate (an animal, especially a horse).
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to take strength, vitality, or power from; weaken or subdue.
noun
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a payment; tax.
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a tax paid to the crown by landholders under the Anglo-Saxon and Norman kings.
verb
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to castrate (a horse or other animal)
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to deprive of virility or vitality; emasculate; weaken
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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geldsimple
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geldssimple
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have geldedperfect
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have geltperfect
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has geldedperfect
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has geltperfect
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am geldingprogressive
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are geldingprogressive
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is geldingprogressive
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have been geldingperfect progressive
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has been geldingperfect progressive
Past
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geldedsimple
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geltsimple
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had geldedperfect
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had geltperfect
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was geldingprogressive
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were geldingprogressive
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had been geldingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of geld1
1250–1300; Middle English gelden < Old Norse gelda
Origin of geld2
1600–10; < Medieval Latin geldum payment, tribute < Germanic; compare Old English geld, German Geld
Explanation
In farming and ranching, the verb geld means to castrate — or remove the sexual organs of — a male animal. A farmer might geld a horse so that he will be calmer and easier to ride. People who raise animals choose to geld them for various reasons. If a male animal is not going to be bred, or deliberately mated to produce offspring, it is often easier to manage him without his powerful hormones. When you geld an animal, he tends to be more mellow and well-behaved, making a gentler horse or donkey as a working animal or pet. The Old Norse root of geld is gelda, "castrate," from geldr, "barren."
Vocabulary lists containing geld
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:
"Doing otherwise allows these public officials to geld the Constitution."
From Fox News ● Jun. 26, 2020
Trainer Richard Mandella decided to geld the 5-year-old after Setsuko finished ninth in the Pacific Classic last August.
From Newsweek ● Mar. 4, 2012
Interior Department agency, to geld 200 wild stallions over a six- to 10-year period in vast stretches of open range called the Pancake Complex, near Ely in eastern Nevada.
From Reuters ● Dec. 22, 2011
Connections were forced to geld the horse recently after he attacked a member of staff.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 12, 2011
“Nothing like flattery before they geld a fellow,” Sam said.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
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
The horse was also gelded since that last race and is protected today Lots to like here.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2019
The Woodward and Bernstein we get to see—so dutiful, so serious—are Butch and Sundance gelded.
From Slate ● Jun. 14, 2017
He supports Servis’s desire to take a long view with a horse that is without breeding value because he is a gelded New Jersey-bred.
From New York Times ● Mar. 4, 2016
At the corral the stock horses snorted at us and rubbed their heads against the bars, and Specklebottom took a kick at a gelded friend just to keep in practice.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
They open the traditional gifts: one night, matching pajamas from grandparents; another night, books from an aunt and uncle; another night, chocolate gelt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
For example, she ordered Hanukkah gelt – chocolate coins wrapped in foil — from three vendors and got two out of three.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 22, 2021
“I’ve tried making jelly doughnuts and they end up being really sad,” she says, but store-bought versions do tend to make an appearance, along with latkes and gelt.
From New York Times ● Dec. 1, 2021
Other traditions that have become ubiquitous with the Festival of Lights include gift exchanges, dreidel games, chocolate coins and gelt, potato latkes and other fried foods.
From Fox News ● Nov. 28, 2021
They saw us, and one guy beckoned for me to gelt up.
From "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
The six-year-old gelding scored its biggest win to date at the Bart Cummings over 2,520m at Flemington last month, before a third behind Half Yours at the Caulfield Cup.
From Barron's ● Nov. 3, 2025
Police arrested 118 people on the day of the race, in which the gelding Hill Sixteen suffered a fatal injury.
From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2024
Danish, fresh from politically gelding Roy in public, recognizes this advantage too.
From Salon ● Jan. 3, 2024
Mongolian Groom, a 4-year-old gelding, was euthanized after breaking his left hind leg in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in California.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 1, 2023
He spurred his gelding and rode out into the river, but the horse struggled in the soft mud and beyond the reeds the water deepened.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
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.
