castration

UK/kæˈstɹeɪ.ʃən/US/kæˈstɹeɪ.ʃən/

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,726 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: castrations

Castration is the removal of the male reproductive organs. Surgical castration, castration of livestock, chemical castration.

In farming it is routine and is done to make animals easier to handle and the meat milder. Chemical castration uses drugs to suppress hormones instead and is used in some countries as a sentence for sexual offences.

Definitions of castration

1nouncastrationThe removal of the male reproductive organs.C1
“In ancient China, some palace servants underwent castration before entering the emperor's household.”

castration is an operation.

Where it comes from

Latin
castrātus
Middle English
castrat — (adjective) castrated; (noun) a castrated animal
English
castrate
English, today
castration

Built from

castrō · Latin — to prune, amputate, castrate

From castrate + -ion. castrate Likely from an unattested sense of Middle English castrat (“(adjective) castrated; (noun) a castrated animal”), substantivized borrowing of Latin castrātus, perfect passive participle of castrō (“to prune, amputate, castrate”), see -ate).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

castration in the wild

Methods of castration used to terminate the onset of puberty varied.
Castrato
To prevent the child from experiencing the intense pain of castration, many were inadvertently administered lethal doses of opium or some other narcotic.
Castrato
Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function.
Eunuch
Surgical castration in animals is often called neutering.
Castration
In the United States, Thomas Jefferson wrote and proposed a bill in Virginia reducing the punishment for rape, polygamy, or sodomy from death to castration.
Castration

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the castrō family

castrate castration

castration — used about once every 7,127 pages · #10,726 · point at the bar for the others

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