Definition of "castrate"

castrate¹

/kæs.ˈtɹeɪt/

noun
plural castrates
1. A castrated man; a eunuch.
  Quotations
  The castrate voice had a strange power not duplicated by soprano or countertenor.
  1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae

castrate²

/ˈkæs.tɹeɪt/

verb
third-person singular simple present castrates, present participle castrating, simple past and past participle castrated
1. (transitive) To remove the testicles of a person or animal.
  Quotations
  If the priests of Diana of Ephesus castrated themselves and offered their genitals on the altar, it was because the phallus was the symbol of the dying body.
  1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 129
2. (transitive) To remove the ovaries and/or uterus of an animal.
3. (transitive, figurative) To take something from; to render imperfect or ineffectual.