unwomanv.
1. transitive. To deprive of the qualities or traits of a woman; to remove from the category of women. Occasionally reflexive. Also const. of.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > person > woman > make woman [verb (transitive)] > deprive of qualities or traits of woman
unwoman1611
defeminize1760
unfeminize1886
1611 J. Florio Queen Anna's New World of Words Disdonnare, to vnwoman.
1614 T. Adams Diuells Banket i. 5 A degenerate woman, vnwomaned..of both, modestie and chastitie.
1621 G. Sandys tr. Ovid First Five Bks. Metamorphosis ii. 49 Shee, whose wicked deeds Vnwoman'd her.
1631 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlewoman 123 One weary of her sexe, forbore not to vnwoman her selfe, by assuming not onely a virile habit, but a virago's heart.
1744 E. Haywood Female Spectator No. 5 (1748) I. 263 There is nothing..so shocking to the..modesty of our sex,..that we may not..degenerate into, if we proceed to unwoman ourselves.
1838 E. B. Barrett Romaunt of Page in Tait's Edinb. Mag. Nov. 683/1 No woman bright my loves requite, Unwomaned if she be.
1863 M. Oliphant Salem Chapel II. xxi. 22 Not all her personal wretchedness, could unwoman the minister's mother so much as to make her forgive..Phœbe's presumption.
2. To unsex (a woman). rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > biology > biological processes > procreation or reproduction > infertility > infertile [verb (transitive)] > castrate or spay > spay
spaya1425
geld1557
unwoman1827
1827 Lancet 20 Oct. 71 Taking away the ovaries altogether..would unwoman her.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1926; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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