| 释义 |
▪ I. emasculate, a.|ɪˈmæskjʊlət|
[ad. L. ēmasculāt-us, pa. pple. of ēmasculāre: see next.]
= emasculated. a. Castrated, deprived of virility. In lit. sense chiefly quasi-n.
1886Homilet. Rev. Nov. 403 The kadeshim or emasculates.
b. fig. Unmanly, deprived of vigour; weak, effeminate.
1622H. Sydenham Serm. Sol. Occ. (1637) 259 Of Spirits emasculate and sick. 1752Smart Hop Garden With love Emasculate, and wine. 1849Robertson Serm. Ser. i. vi. 90 Too emasculate to trudge through cold and rain. 1867Contemp. Rev. VI. 169 German architecture is at once eclectic, scholarly, and emasculate.
▪ II. emasculate, v.|ɪˈmæskjʊleɪt|
[f. L. ēmasculāt-, ppl. stem of ēmasculā-re to castrate, f. ē out + mascul-us, dim. of mas male.]
1. trans. To deprive of virility, to castrate (a male person or animal).
1623Cockeram, Emasculate, to geld. 1662J. Graunt Observ. Bills Mortality 48 If you emasculate fewer [lambs]. 1744J. Bryant Mythol. II. 104 Another invention..was that of emasculating men. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. II. 221 Young cocks should be emasculated at three months old.
2. transf. and fig. To deprive of strength and vigour; to weaken, make effeminate and cowardly; to enfeeble, impoverish (language).
1607Topsell Serpents 79 Drones..lacking their sting, and by that defect being as it were ema[s]culated. 1652Bp. Patrick Serm. in J. Smith's Sel. Disc. 555 Do not..enervate your souls..do not emasculate them. 1675Evelyn Terra (1729) 26 'Tis the want of Salt, which emasculates the Virtue of Seeds. 1775T. Sheridan Art Reading 88 The French have emasculated their tongue. 1848De Quincey Protestantism Wks. VIII. 125 Is the lightning dimmed or emasculated? 1876C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. 296 A religion without thought is emasculated.
b. esp. To take the force out of (literary compositions) by removing what is supposed to be indecorous or offensive.
1756–82J. Warton Ess. Pope I. v. 274 Pieces that are not emasculated with this epidemical effeminacy. 1815Southey Lett. (1856) II. 395 How Gifford mutilates and emasculates my reviews. 1850Kingsley Alt. Locke xviii. (1879) 200, I..consented to emasculate my poems.
†3. intr. (See quot.) Obs. rare—1.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xvii. 147 Mutation of sexes..[is] observable in man..though very few..have emasculated or turned women. |