(verb) : castro, āvi, ātum, 1, Sanscr. çastra, knife, sword.
* To deprive of generative power (both of male and female), to emasculate, castrate, geld: hircum,Plaut. Merc. 2, 2, 1 and 4: agnum,Varr. R. R. 2, 2, 18: gallos,id. ib. 3, 9, 3; Curt. 6, 3, 12; Val. Max. 6, 1, 13; Suet. Dom. 7: sues,Plin. 8, 51, 77, § 208; 10, 21, 25, § 50; 11, 51, 112, § 261 al.
* Transf. to plants, to prune, lop, trim, Cato, R. R. 33, 2; Plin. 17, 20, 33, § 144; 24, 8, 33, § 49.
* In gen., to shorten, cut off, curtail: caudas catulorum,Col. 7, 12, 14; cf. Plin. 8, 41, 63, § 153: alvos apum,to take up, to take out the honey,Col. 9, 15, 4; 9, 15, 11; cf.: castrare alvearia,Pall. 7, 7.
* Trop., to enervate, debilitate: castrata res publica morte Africani, weakened (a vulgar figure, acc. to Cic. de Or. 3, 41, 164; Quint. 8, 6, 15): nisi illum (Maecenatem) enervasset felicitas, immo castrasset,Sen. Ep. 19, 9: libellos,to remove obscenity, to expurgate,Mart. 1, 35, 14: vires,to diminish,Plin. 11, 18, 19, § 60: avaritiam,to check, restrain,Claud. Eutr. 1, 192.

s. TLL