Adjacent Words

Neuter definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

NEUTER, a. [L. not either.]
1. Not adhering to either party; taking no part with either side, either when persons are contending, or questions are discussed. It may be synonymous with indifferent, or it may not. The United States remained neuter during the French Revolution, but very few of the people were indifferent as to the success of the parties engaged. A man may be neuter from feeling, and he is then indifferent; but he may be neuter in fact, when he is not in feeling or principle. A judge should be perfectly neuter in feeling, that he may decide with impartiality.
2. In grammar, of neither gender; an epithet given to nouns that are neither masculine nor feminine; primarily to nouns which express neither sex.
NEUTER, n.
1. A person that takes no part in a contest between two or more individuals or nations; a person who is either indifferent to the cause, or forbears to interfere.
2. A animal of neither sex, or incapable of propagation. The working bees are neuters.
Neuter verb, in grammar, a verb which expresses an action or state limited to the subject, and which is not followed by an object; as, I go; I sit; I am; I run; I walk. It is better denominated intransitive.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: of grammatical gender; "`it' is the third-person singular neuter pronoun" [ant: feminine, masculine]
2: having no or imperfectly developed or nonfunctional sex organs [syn: neuter, sexless] n
1: a gender that refers chiefly (but not exclusively) to inanimate objects (neither masculine nor feminine) v
1: remove the ovaries of; "Is your cat spayed?" [syn: alter, neuter, spay, castrate]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English neutre, from Middle French & Latin; Middle French neutre, from Latin neuter, literally, neither, from ne- not + uter which of two — more at no, whether Date: 14th century 1. a. of, relating to, or constituting the gender that ordinarily includes most words or grammatical forms referring to things classed as neither masculine nor feminine b. neither active nor passive ; intransitive 2. taking no side ; neutral 3. lacking or having imperfectly developed or nonfunctional generative organs <the worker bee is neuter> II. noun Date: 15th century 1. a. a noun, pronoun, adjective, or inflectional form or class of the neuter gender b. the neuter gender 2. one that is neutral 3. a. worker 2 b. a spayed or castrated animal III. transitive verb Date: 1903 1. castrate, alter 2. to remove the force or effectiveness of

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj., n., & v. --adj. 1 Gram. (of a noun etc.) neither masculine nor feminine. 2 (of a plant) having neither pistils nor stamen. 3 (of an insect) sexually undeveloped. --n. 1 Gram. a neuter word. 2 a a non-fertile insect, esp. a worker bee or ant. b a castrated animal. --v.tr. castrate or spay. Etymology: ME f. OF neutre or L neuter neither f. ne- not + uter either

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Neuter Neu"ter, n. 1. A person who takes no part in a contest; one who is either indifferent to a cause or forbears to interfere; a neutral. The world's no neuter; it will wound or save. --Young. 2. (Gram.) (a) A noun of the neuter gender; any one of those words which have the terminations usually found in neuter words. (b) An intransitive verb. 3. (Biol.) 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; esp., 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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Neuter Neu"ter, a. [L., fr. ne not + uter whether; akin to E. whether. See No, and Whether, and cf. Neither.] 1. Neither the one thing nor the other; on neither side; impartial; neutral. [Archaic] In all our undertakings God will be either our friend or our enemy; for Providence never stands neuter. --South. 2. (Gram.) (a) Having a form belonging more especially to words which are not appellations of males or females; expressing or designating that which is of neither sex; as, a neuter noun; a neuter termination; the neuter gender. (b) Intransitive; as, a neuter verb. 3. (Biol.) Having no generative organs, or imperfectly developed ones; sexless. See Neuter, n., 3.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(neuters, neutering, neutered) 1. When an animal is neutered, its reproductive organs are removed so that it cannot create babies. We ask the public to have their dogs neutered and keep them under close supervision. VERB: usu passive, have n V-ed 2. To neuter an organization, group, or person means to make them powerless and ineffective. (mainly BRIT JOURNALISM) ...the Government's 'hidden agenda' to neuter local authorities... Their air force had been neutered before the work began. VERB: V n, be V-ed 3. In some languages, a neuter noun, pronoun, or adjective has a different form from a masculine or feminine one, or behaves in a different way. ADJ

Moby Thesaurus

Laodicean, alter, animate, anythingarian, apathetic, asexual, capon, castrate, castrated, centrist, change, cold, common gender, contemplative, cool, cut, desex, desexualize, do-nothing, doctor, dormant, emasculate, emasculated, epicene, eunuchize, eunuchized, even, feminine, fence-sitter, fervorless, fifty-fifty, fix, frigid, frustrated, geld, gender, half-and-half, halfhearted, idle, immobile, impartial, impotent, inactive, inanimate, independent, indifferent, inert, laissez-aller, laissez-faire, lukewarm, masculine, meditative, midway, moderate, motionless, mugwump, mutilate, neutral, nonaligned, noncommitted, nonpartisan, nothingarian, on the fence, paralytic, paralyzed, passive, perfunctory, procrastinating, quiescent, quietist, quietistic, sexless, spay, stagnant, stagnating, standpat, static, stationary, tepid, third force, third world, third-force, third-world, uncommitted, uninvolved, unsex, unsexed, unsexual, vegetable, vegetative, zealless