deflower

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   dated: to have sexual intercourse with a person regarded as a virgin, framed as taking that person's virginity

   The historian notes that older writers used deflower to describe sex through a possessive and gendered idea of virginity.

2. 2
   verb

   rare and literal: to remove the flowers or petals from a plant

   The storm deflowered the roses before the garden show.

3. 3
   verb

   figurative: to spoil, violate, or deprive something of beauty or freshness

   The critic claimed that careless restoration had deflowered the painting.

From Middle English deflouren and Old French desflorer, from Late Latin deflorare, combining de-, 'away,' with flos, floris, 'flower.' Removing a flower became a metaphor for taking virginity and, more broadly, for spoiling beauty or freshness; the sexual framing is now dated and gendered.

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