emasculate

verb

1. (transitive)To deprive of virile or procreative power; to castrate, to geld.

   “Castration has a ſtrange effect; it emaſculates both man, beaſt and bird, and brings them to a near reſemblance of the other ſex. Thus, eunuchs have ſmooth unmuſcular arms, thighs, and legs; and broad hips, and beardleſs chins, and ſqueaking voices. Gelt stags and bucks have hornleſs heads, like hinds and does.”

   “At Athens the Prieſts and Prieſteſſes were drawn by lot, from the men and virgins of diſtinguiſhed family and irreproachable life. Maimed or deformed perſons were not admitted, and purity and chaſtity were ſo particularly required, that the Prieſts frequently uſed means to emaſculate themselves.”

2. (specifically, transitive)To deprive of virile or procreative power; to castrate, to geld.
3. (transitive)To deprive of masculine vigor or spirit; to weaken; to render effeminate; to vitiate by unmanly softness.

   “A hardy race, in ungenial climates, with nerves ſtrung by the northern blaſt, though little refined by knowledge, felt in an early age, the ſentiments of manly virtue, and ſpurned the baſeneſs of ſlavery. Luxury had not emaſculated their minds; and they threw off, with native elaſticity, the burden of unjuſt dominion.”

   “[I]f luxury emaſculate the minds of the nobility, enervate the ſinews of the people, render money, and not merit, the paſſport to authority, and, inſtead of the ſtrong and natural ſupport of native valour, ſubſtitute the weak and inefficient prop of mercenary aid: of ſuch a ſtate, however extenſive may be its Commerce, however ample its revenue, the ruin is inevitable.”

   “The Agadic tradition has preserved another element of the Noah-myth. The wicked black son Ham (Châm), emasculates his father [...]. The emasculation of the Sun, when the Sun is male, is an expression of Aryan mythology denoting the weakening of his rays before and at sunset. The black son, the Night, overcomes and emasculates his father, takes all power from his rays and drives him to ruin.”

   “A few weeks later he came to the conclusion that his mother was emasculating him. He claimed that her grip was so strong on him that he was resentful. Not only was she emasculating, but she was also "castrating" because her demands and expectations were feminizing him.”

4. (transitive)Of a flower: to deprive of the anthers.

   “It is well understood that in artificial cross-fertilizing, in order to prevent self-fecundation, we emasculate the flower from which we wish to obtain the seeds for new varieties; that is, we remove the anthers from that flower, and in the proper season apply to the stigma the pollen from some other distinct flower.”

adj

1. Deprived of virility or vigor; unmanned, weak.

   “Thence as he glanc'd his eye, far other form / And much unfit for war he next eſpied, / Chemos, the ſin of Moab; power obſcene, / Emaſculate and ſoft, in looſe attire / A ſenſual deity; his glory 'twas / In arts of baſe ſeduction to excel, / And leagu'd with harlots to have turn'd the heart, / Of that wife king, and drawn him from his God / To bend his aged knees at idol ſhrines.”