neuter
Part of speech: adj
noun
verb
Morphological type: derivation
Topics: biology
grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
natural-sciences
sciences
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English neutre, from Latin neuter, from ne (“not”) + uter (“either”), a semantic loan from Koine Greek οὐδέτερος (oudéteros); compare English either, English whether, and neither.
Base: ne
Inflected forms:
form: more neuter
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most neuter
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: n.
pos: adj
tags: alternative
abbreviation
form: n
pos: adj
tags: alternative
abbreviation
form: ntr
pos: adj
tags: alternative
abbreviation
form: neuters
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: n.
pos: noun
tags: alternative
abbreviation
form: n
pos: noun
tags: alternative
abbreviation
form: ntr
pos: noun
tags: alternative
abbreviation
form: neuters
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: neutering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: neutered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: neutered
pos: verb
tags: past
form: n.
pos: verb
tags: alternative
abbreviation
form: n
pos: verb
tags: alternative
abbreviation
form: ntr
pos: verb
tags: alternative
abbreviation
Senses:
gloss: Neutral; on neither side; neither one thing nor another.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
uncommon
usually
examples: But if I could, by Him that gave me life,
I would attach you all and make you stoop
Unto the sovereign mercy of the king;
But since I cannot, be it known to you
I do remain as neuter.
This is certain, that in all our Undertakings God will be either our Friend or our Enemy. For Providence never stands neuter […]
[A]s their firſt Security, they did all they could to foment War betwixt the neighbouring Negroes, remaining Neuter themselves, by which Means, thoſe who were overcome conſtantly fled to them for Protection, otherwiſe they must be either killed or made Slaves.
A relay race that does not match teams but integrates the fastest and the slowest in one race against the most neuter of all adversaries — time.
gloss: Having a form which is not masculine nor feminine; or having a form which is not of common gender.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: a neuter noun
the neuter definite article
a neuter termination
the neuter gender
Slaves were given short, often neuter, names.
In The Cook and the Carpenter, Arnold used the device of a neuter pronoun "na," instead of assigning gender to the characters.
gloss: Intransitive.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: a neuter verb
gloss: Sexless: having no or imperfectly developed sex organs.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
examples: […] I should never have anticipated that natural selection could have been efficient in so high a degree, had not the case of these neuter insects convinced me of the fact.
gloss: Sexless, nonsexual.
pos: adj
tags: literary
not-comparable
usually
examples: Rich girls stayed home and got married and then "put out" occasionally, but only as their wifely duty. Prior to the sexual revolution in the 1960s southern belles were the most neuter members of the human race[.]
gloss: Castrated; having had the reproductive organs removed.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
usually
gloss: An organism, either vegetable or animal, which at its maturity has no generative organs, or but imperfectly developed ones, as a plant without stamens or pistils, as the garden Hydrangea; especially, one of the imperfectly developed females of certain social insects, as of the ant and the common honeybee, which perform the labors of the community, and are called workers.
pos: noun
gloss: One who has been neutered; eunuch.
pos: noun
tags: offensive
sometimes
uncommon
examples: the information i acquire may help me finalize my decision to become a neuter. let me say that castration is (for me) in no way a short term goal. it's something i've heard about, thought about, and believe may benefit me personally.
I WOULD SOONER BECOME A NEUTER
no seriously tell me where the libido-suppressing pills are
You can change yourself into a neuter, but you can't become the opposite sex.
gloss: The act of neutering (typically an animal)
pos: noun
examples: Well, we've had a young (probably around a year old, but I'm guessing), intact (he's scheduled for a neuter, but it's one of those "when we get a spare minute" type of things) male Shih-tzu/shih-tzu mix come in about a month ago.
gloss: A person who takes no part in a contest; someone remaining neutral.
pos: noun
examples: But if you should beecome eyther a counterfayt Protestant, or a perverse Papist, or a colde and carelesse newter (which God forbid) the harme could not be expressed which you should do to your native Cuntrie.
Friends, neuters, enemies, all are as one, to make a fool a madman is their sport […].
gloss: The neuter gender.
pos: noun
gloss: A noun of the neuter gender; any one of those words which have the terminations usually found in neuter words.
pos: noun
gloss: An intransitive verb or state-of-being verb.
pos: noun
examples: Make one do, or act (to), fare fare, fare agire, with an accusative when the verb is a neuter, and with a dative when otherwise.
Compound verbs other than those already spoken of whereby neuters are made active, are very rare, as I have already hinted under the head of nouns.
In all the Apachean languages, verbs are divided into two major categories, neuters and actives, each of which may be further divided into intransitives, transitives, and passives.
gloss: To remove sex organs from an animal to prevent it from having offspring; to castrate or spay, particularly as applied to domestic animals.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To rid of sexuality.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The neutering extends to Believe’s guest stars, with warm-and-fuzzy verses from Ludacris (“I love everything about you / You’re imperfectly perfect”), Big Sean (“I don’t know if this makes sense, but you’re my hallelujah”), Nicki Minaj (who at least squeaks a “bitches” into her verse), and especially Drake, whose desire to hug and kiss the object of his affection on “Right Here” is reminiscent of The Red Hot Chili Peppers on Krusty’s Comeback Special.
gloss: To drastically reduce the effectiveness of something.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Congress neutered the bill by adding an exception for big corporations.
Here wrangling, bitty conflicts neutered change.
This collusion with the forces of corporate oppression neuters the press, Trump's critics and the Democratic Party.
gloss: To make grammatically neuter.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: At their religious services Am Tikva makes all attempts to de-genderize the liturgy by neutering English nouns and pronouns and, when Hebrew is used, by using both masculine and the feminine forms of the language.
Synonyms: castrate
desex
doctor
fix
spay
Derived words: neuter voice
neuter gender
neuterdom
neuterism
neuterlike
neuterly
neuterness
neuticles
nonneuter
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: непрехо́ден глаго́л
roman: neprehóden glagól
lang: Japanese
word: 無変化動詞
roman: muhenka-dōshi
lang: Latin
word: verbum neutrum
lang: Russian
word: неперехо́дный глаго́л
roman: neperexódnyj glagól