unsex

American  

[uhn-seks] / ʌnˈsɛks /

verb (used with object)

1. to render (an animal or person) unable to reproduce sexually, as by removing the testicles or ovaries.

   A gelding is a male horse that has been unsexed and cannot breed.

2. to deprive (oneself or another person) of the qualities or character considered typical or desirable for one's gender.

   Those against female suffrage claimed that the right to vote would unsex women, leaving them unable to care for their homes and children.

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unsex British  

/ ʌnˈsɛks /

verb

1. literary to deprive (a person) of the attributes of his or her sex, esp to make a woman more callous

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Etymology

Origin of unsex

First recorded in 1595–1605; un- ² + sex

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

unsex

Lady Macbeth has no such qualms when she’s summoning evil spirits to unsex her in “Macbeth.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2026

Beat purer, heart, and higher,    Till God unsex thee on the heavenly shore    Where unincarnate spirits purely aspire!

From Frederick Chopin, as a Man and Musician — Volume 1 by Frederick Niecks

When opposed, the protagonists of this position cry that their opponent wishes to unsex women; to repudiate motherhood; and see in all the natural development of the modern woman only a threat of decreased population.

From The Forerunner, Volume 1 (1909-1910) by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

“Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,” &c.— is that of one who had habitually familiarised her imagination to dreadful conceptions, and was trying to do so still more.

From Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Mr. Foote remarked, that if there was any other Committee of this House that would or could unsex the female sex, he had no objection to the reference moved.

From History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I by Elizabeth Cady Stanton