Wiktionary

castrate

English

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Etymology 1

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From Latin castrātus, past participle of castrō.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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castrate (plural castrates)

  1. A castrated man; a eunuch.
    • 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae:
      The castrate voice had a strange power not duplicated by soprano or countertenor.

Etymology 2

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From the past participle stem of Latin castrāre.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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castrate (third-person singular simple present castrates, present participle castrating, simple past and past participle castrated)

  1. (transitive) To remove the testicles of a person or animal.
    • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 129:
      If the priests of Diana of Ephesus castrated themselves and offered their genitals on the altar, it was because the phallus was the symbol of the dying body.
  2. (transitive, uncommon) To remove the ovaries and/or uterus of an animal.
  3. (transitive, figurative) To take something from; to render imperfect or ineffectual.
Synonyms
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  • geld (generally used only for animals, especially horses)
  • spay f / neuter (generally used only for animals, especially pets)
  • sterilize (used for all species and for both genders)
Hyponyms
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Derived terms
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Translations
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Anagrams

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Italian

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Etymology 1

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Verb

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castrate

  1. inflection of castrare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

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Participle

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castrate f pl

  1. feminine plural of castrato

Anagrams

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Latin

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Noun

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castrāte

  1. vocative singular of castrātus

Spanish

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Verb

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castrate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of castrar combined with te
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