Eunuch

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: eu=nuch

CIDE DICTIONARY

Eunuch, n. [L. eunuchus, Gr. , prop., keeping or guarding the couch; couch, bed, + to have, hold, keep.].

 A male of the human species castrated; commonly, one of a class of such persons, in Oriental countries, having charge of the women's apartments. Some of them, in former times, gained high official rank.

Eunuch, v. t. [L. eunuchare.].

 To make a eunuch of; to castrate. as a man.  Creech. Sir. T. Browne.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Eunuch, n.
1 a castrated man, esp. one formerly employed at an oriental harem or court.
2 a person lacking effectiveness (political eunuch).

Etymology

ME f. L eunuchus f. Gk eunoukhos lit. bedchamber attendant f. eune bed + second element rel. to ekho hold

ROGET THESAURUS

Eunuch

Impotence

N impotence, inability, disability, disablement, impuissance, imbecility, incapacity, incapability, inaptitude, ineptitude, incompetence, unproductivity, indocility, invalidity, disqualification, inefficiency, wastefulness, telum imbelle, brutum fulmen, blank, blank cartridge, flash in the pan, vox et proeterea nihil, dead letter, bit of waste paper, dummy, paper tiger, Quaker gun, inefficacy, failure, helplessness, prostration, paralysis, palsy, apoplexy, syncope, sideration, deliquium, collapse, exhaustion, softening of the brain, inanition, emasculation, orchiotomy, orchotomy, cripple, old woman, muff, powder puff, creampuff, pussycat, wimp, mollycoddle, eunuch, powerless, impotent, unable, incapable, incompetent, inefficient, ineffective, inept, unfit, unfitted, unqualified, disqualified, unendowed, inapt, unapt, crippled, disabled, armless, harmless, unarmed, weaponless, defenseless, sine ictu, unfortified, indefensible, vincible, pregnable, untenable, paralytic, paralyzed, palsied, imbecile, nerveless, sinewless, marrowless, pithless, lustless, emasculate, disjointed, out of joint, out of gear, unnerved, unhinged, water-logged, on one's beam ends, rudderless, laid on one's back, done up, dead beat, exhausted, shattered, demoralized, graveled, helpless, unfriended, fatherless, without a leg to stand on, hors de combat, laid on the shelf, null and void, nugatory, inoperative, good for nothing, ineffectual, inadequate, inefficacious, der kranke Mann, desirous still but impotent to rise, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.