deoculate

D2E1O1C3U1L1A1T1E1

verb

To remove the eyes or their equivalent from (someone).

Scrabble 12

Meanings

verbdeoculate (third-person singular simple present deoculates, present participle deoculating, simple past and past participle deoculated)

present singular third person deoculates · participle present deoculating · participle past deoculated · past deoculated

  1. To remove the eyes or their equivalent from (someone).

    Big Mac's cancer is miraculously cured when he deoculates one of the severed heads and sinks them both out in the bay.

    1984, Books and Bookmen, page 25
    3 more examples

    "Lear" and "We Come to the River" have much in common, beyond the scene of deoculating the straitjacketed protagonist: images of brutality, executions, and jubilation; of soldiers starting to question their orders ("They make you do things no one should even have to dream of and cheer you when you've done it"); of suffering; and — fleeting yet powerful in both works— of a peaceful family life in which children's questions are asked and answered about the marvels of the natural world, not about hardships and unhappiness.

    1976, The New Yorker - Volume 52, Part 5, page 188

    Sadly deoculated by his enemy, the Genji, after defeat, Kagekiyo lives out his days in darkened solitude, visited finally by his long-lost daughter.

    2002, Timon Screech, The Lens Within the Heart

    “Did you know,” said Roderick, “that St. Lucy had beautiful eyes, so she was deoculated as a martyrdom? Her symbol is a pair of eyes on a saucer.”

    2010, Nick Gevers, Marty Halpern, Is Anybody Out There?

Origin

From de- + oculo- + -ate (verb-forming suffix); coined by Charles Lamb in a letter to William Wordsworth written in 1816: "Dorothy, I hear, has mounted spectacles; so deoculated two of your dearest relations in life. ".

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

deoculate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deoculate

MLA

“deoculate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deoculate. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “deoculate,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/deoculate.

Source: deoculate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.