neuter

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
neuter/ˈnjuːtə(r)/

▶adjective

• 1 of or denoting a gender of nouns typically contrasting with masculine and feminine or common.

• 2 (of an animal) lacking developed sexual organs; castrated or spayed.

  ■ (of a plant or flower) having neither functional pistils nor stamens.

▶noun

• 1 Grammar a neuter word.

• 2 a non-fertile caste of social insect, especially a worker bee or ant.

  ■ a castrated or spayed domestic animal.

▶verb

• 1 castrate or spay (a domestic animal).

• 2 make ineffective.

– origin ME: via OFr. from L. neuter ‘neither’, from ne- ‘not’ + uter ‘either’.