Meaning & use
deflowering
Last updated
The act of taking someone's virginity, or, literally, stripping a plant of its flowers.
See it in a sentence
The novel's central scandal revolves around the deflowering of the young heroine.
Early frost prevented the deflowering of the orchard's blossoms that spring.
A note on using this word
Though the figurative sense of losing virginity is now far more common than the literal botanical one, both meanings remain in dictionary use.
Words with a similar meaning
devirginizing
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Another way to use it
2. verb
To strip a plant of its flowers, especially before they can produce seed.
Gardeners sometimes practice deflowering to redirect a plant's energy into growth.
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