Dictionary

unman en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ʌnˈmæn/ (General-American)

Etymology

From un- (“de-, dis-, away”) + man (“male person”). Compare Dutch ontmannen, German entmannen, both “to unman, emasculate, castrate”.

Meanings

1. (archaic, transitive) To divest of humanity.
   • Unman not therefore thy self by a beastial transformation, nor realize old Fables. 1881, Sir Thomas Browne, William Alexander Greenhill, Religio Medici; Letter to a Friend; Christian Morals, page 215:
2. (archaic, transitive) To castrate; to remove the manhood of.
   • He unmanned himself under a pine-tree and bled to death on the spot. 1906, James George Frazer, Attis, Otis, Osiris, volume 1, page 264:
3. (figuratively, transitive) To sap (a person) of the strength, whether physical or emotional, required to deal with a situation.
   • Meta has created a vision of life in which, without A.I. aiding his every word, an individual can be left reeling by the simplest of human interactions, unmanned by an ordinary dad joke. 2025 June 25, Ismail Muhammad, “Why Does Every Commercial for A.I. Think You’re a Moron?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
   • I hope to God his theories will not unman him in action, that he will not be musing and refining when he should be leading the Jacks […] 1855, William Delafield Arnold, Oakfield: Or, Fellowship in the East, page 280:
   • He dressed moodily, and left the room to go down to breakfast. Breakfast would at least alleviate this sinking feeling which was unmanning him. 1919 May 10 – June 28, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, “A Damsel in Distress”, in George Horace Lorimer, editor, The Saturday Evening Post, volume 191, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN:
4. (transitive) To deprive of men.

Forms

Deriveds

unmanner

Synonyms

emasculate · emasculate