unsex

U1N1S1E1X8
/ʌnˈsɛks/

verb

To deprive of sexual attributes or characteristics.

Scrabble 12

Meanings

verbunsex (third-person singular simple present unsexes, present participle unsexing, simple past and past participle unsexed)

present singular third person unsexes · participle present unsexing · participle past unsexed · past unsexed

  1. transitiveTo deprive of sexual attributes or characteristics.

    The Amazon cut off a breat to battle: How will not Woman disfigure and unsex herself to gain her end?

    1859, George Meredith, chapter 1, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC
    3 more examples

    Lady Macbeth: Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe full Of direst cruelty:

    c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v]

    The Sea-king, Ravisher of Ilium Knows not her false and slavering tongue, thrust out, Lewd bitch, to lick and fawn and smile and be The secret soul of unforgiving hell! Dare it, She-devil! Unsex thyself, and be His murderess!

    c. 1920–1925 [458 BCE], Geoffrey Montague Cookson, transl., Agamemnon, translation of original by Aeschylus

    […]she had expected the worst ever since Drusilla had deliberately tried to unsex herself by refusing to feel any natural grief at the death in battle not only of her affianced husband but of her own father […]

    1935 April, William Faulkner, “Skirmish at Sartoris”, in The Unvanquished, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 1938, →OCLC; republished in The Unvanquished: The Corrected Text, New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, October 1991, →ISBN, section 1, page 189
  2. transitiveTo sterilize (deprive of the ability to procreate); to castrate.

Synonyms & antonyms

verbmake infertile

Broader
operate onoperate

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with unsex

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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