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Glite Dictionary
🚫 To take femininity 🚫 A rejected woman
to unwoman

to unwoman

1 9.9
To take away qualities people expect in a woman
  • verb
  • /ʌnˈwʌmən/
  • Slur
: [insulto ofensivo: privar de la condición de mujer]
  • In a world where women were expected to be submissive, the harsh realities of life served to unwoman many who once embraced their identity.

Examples

  • His letter has a familiar saner-than-thou tone, the self-satisfied imperviousness that unwomans me time and again.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • She felt the pressure to conform to societal norms, and the constant criticism began to unwoman her spirit.

  • After years of being told she was not feminine enough, the constant judgment from others threatened to unwoman her sense of self.

Synonyms

to unsex
vsto unwoman
  • Archaic
1 9.9

To remove sexual parts or qualities from a living thing

is specific to removing qualities seen as typical of the female role

Antonyms

to feminize
  • US
4 7.2

To make a person or thing more like a woman

Surface Forms

unwoman infinitive
unwomaned past
unwomaned past participle
unwomening present participle

Morphology

unwoman = woman (semi-transparent) = un + woman

The word is productively built from 'un-' plus 'woman', but the exact sense of depriving someone of feminine qualities is slightly specialized.

Etymology

Unwoman as a verb is the same idea: un- 'not' plus woman, and to unwoman someone is to 'take away' the qualities, role, or rights that mark them as a woman, so it means to make someone 'not a woman' in how they are treated.