unsex
Americanverb (used with object)
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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.
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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.
verb
Etymology
Origin of unsex
Vocabulary lists containing unsex
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.
Lady Macbeth has no such qualms when she’s summoning evil spirits to unsex her in “Macbeth.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 17, 2026
Let no girl be deterred from steady and faithful work in the vain fear that she will unsex herself, and to a loving mother's needful anxieties let not this superfluous care be added.
From The Education of American Girls by Brackett, Anna C. (Anna Callender)
Now the effect of the parasite seems to be to unsex as it were its victims so far as their outward appearance is concerned.
From Wild Bees, Wasps and Ants and Other Stinging Insects by Saunders, Edward
Can a ballot in the hand of woman, and dignity on her brow, more unsex her than do a scepter and a crown?
From History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II by Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
Half an hour later the boys in the barn heard Mrs. Jones's voice calling,— The sort of boy who would unsex himself by looking at a baby.
From The Court of Boyville by Lowell, Orson
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.
