emasculate

/ɪˈmæskjəleɪt/

/ɪˈmæskjəleɪt/

Other forms: emasculated; emasculating; emasculates

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.

Definitions of emasculate

1. verb

   deprive of strength or vigor
   “The Senate emasculated the law”

   synonyms: castrate

   type of:

   nerf, weaken

   lessen the strength of
2. verb

   remove the testicles of a male animal
   synonyms: castrate, demasculinise, demasculinize

   types:

   caponise, caponize

   convert a cock into a capon

   cut, geld

   cut off the testicles (of male animals such as horses)

   type of:

   desex, desexualise, desexualize, fix, sterilise, sterilize, unsex

   make infertile
3. adjective

   having unsuitable feminine qualities
   synonyms: cissy, effeminate, epicene, sissified, sissy, sissyish

   unmanful, unmanlike, unmanly

   not possessing qualities befitting a man