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emasculate

[ih-mas-kyuh-layt, ih-mas-kyuh-lit, -layt] / ɪˈmæs kjəˌleɪt, ɪˈmæs kjə lɪt, -ˌleɪt /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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That dynamic was taboo for generations of Americans who feared it might emasculate men and ruin couples’ romantic lives.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2025

Ben Berman, a New York City vegan who began a serious weightlifting regimen last year, said he's trying to reappropriate the epithet "soy boy," historically used to emasculate vegan and vegetarian men.

From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2024

The British attempted to correct the problem by using another lubricant, but Indian troops remained suspicious and some began to believe the British were intentionally using lubricants made of offensive materials to emasculate the sepoys.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

Or they came from players, who used the barbs as a way to emasculate or demean the opponents across from them.

From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2018

That mend, and not emasculate our hearts, And teach the love of freedom and of arts.

From The Poetical Works of William Collins With a Memoir by William Collins

“One guy presents himself as a kind of salt of the earth, a person you could hang out with, and then effectively emasculates the other by presenting them as the opposite.”

From New York Times ● Nov. 1, 2020

“I wanted a gender pronoun that was fun, and that immediately emasculates you—because you can’t roll your eyes and say ‘judy’ without being camp,” Mac told the Guardian during the “24-Decade” run.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 20, 2019

New York artist Cassady Benson illustrated a new version of this fowl emperor that emasculates him by removing his rooster comb and turning him into a round hen guarding a mysterious egg.

From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2017

Eichhorst thinks he’s won the Lumen, allegedly the key to worldwide vampire eradication, but Palmer publicly emasculates him by yanking funds.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2015

How tyranny alters the noblest beings, and emasculates them!

From Rule of the Monk or, Rome in the Nineteenth Century by Giuseppe Garibaldi

It seems to me the premise is flawed—that men are either emasculated or overly macho.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

Hegseth’s language choices and petulant tone do not demonstrate an ignorance of what rhetorical situations demand of him; instead, they reflect a refusal to be emasculated by such cumbersome norms.

From Salon ● Mar. 10, 2026

Allow me to weigh in here, given that you mentioned it in your letter: It’s not your job to reduce your life savings or net worth so your husband doesn’t feel threatened or emasculated.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 22, 2026

“He emasculated any public agency that might put a brake on his power,” Hunt said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2024

He somehow manages to flash a cool smile, even in his most emasculated state.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Learning is itself viewed with suspicion, as an emasculating enterprise best avoided for more punching and bragging.

From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2026

Poor Mr. Biswas, a man of meager prospects but irrepressible pride, must suffer through a series of demeaning dwellings to which his in-laws, the emasculating Tulsis, confine him.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

“It would’ve been criminal to not embrace this, especially since male Asian leads are still so rare in Hollywood — ones that aren’t just the sidekicks or portrayed as stereotypical, emasculating jokes.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2021

A new entertainment technology, TV, was emasculating cinema as a cultural force, and film studios had started to fossilize into bottom line-oriented businesses.

From New York Times ● Nov. 28, 2020

Between 1867 and 1871, he pushed himself even harder, growing thousands of hawkweeds in another patch of garden, emasculating the flowers with the same forceps, and dusting pollen with the same paintbrush.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee


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