From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishneuterneu‧ter1 /ˈnjuːtə $ ˈnuːtər/ adjective technical SLGa neuter noun, pronoun etc belongs to a class of words that have different inflections from masculine or feminine words → gender
Examples from the Corpus
neuter• What is to be understood as female is something vague; indeed the Spirit is often designated as neuter.• Masculine, feminine and neuter are labels for formal properties and have nothing to do with what a word actually means.• Neither did I feel male, but rather neuter, as a child might feel itself to be neuter.• Paramour comes to mind, but that is a neuter term.neuterneuter2 verb [transitive] 1 MBHBAto remove part of the sex organs of an animal so that it cannot produce babies → spay a neutered tomcat2 to remove power from something or to stop something from being effective – used to show disapproval Plans to reform local government are designed to neuter local democracy.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
neuter• If the source can not be located or suppressed, then at least its effect can be neutered.• The asterisk, to my mind, was emblematic of the neutering of Iron Mike.• Spaying and neutering pets is the easiest way to cure that problem.• He would keep it by neutering Steve Jobs.• I think it was the neutering that made us equal, even in the eyes of our professors.• If she had neutered the quick of mystery in platitude before, she was smothering it with symbols now.• The better way to handle the situation is to render the cats infertile without actually neutering them.• If they're neutered they don't smell.Origin neuter1 (1300-1400) Latin “neither”, from ne- “not” + uter “which of two” 