v. [UN-2 6 b.] trans. To deprive or divest of sex, or of the typical qualities of one or other (esp. the female) sex.
1605. Shaks., Macb., I. v. 42. Come you Spirits, That tend on mortall thoughts, vnsex me here.
1793. Murphy, Tacitus, I. 73. If a woman can thus unsex herself at the head of the eagles.
1844. Mrs. Browning, To G. Sand, 13. Beat purer, heart,… Till God unsex thee on the heavenly shore.
1852. Smedley, L. Arundel, xxxviii. 289. A foreign education, than which we know not a better receipt for unsexing the minds of the daughters of Albion.
Hence Unsexing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
[1775. Ash.]
1812. Examiner, 11 May, 302/2. Her unsexing ambition.
1851. Illustr. Lond. News, 27 Sept., 395/2. In reply to the objection of unsexing.
