What does castration mean?

Answer 1

Castrate means to remove the testicles of a male human or animal.

It is a surgical operation on a young males to keep them from developing mature characteristics, in humans it was done to keep a boy's voice from dropping as he grew up so that he could continue singing as a male soprano. It dates of ancient Sumer in the near East and spread through all of Byzantine choirs. During the Renaissance and later such artificial sopranos were very numerous and their employment was not discouraged, even in many church choirs. The custom is now entirely reprobrated; the abuse of the employment of such singers was condemned by Pope Benedict XIV and Clement XIV threatened with excommunication those who performed such an operation unless for lawful medical reasons.

The same operation is often performed on most young male domesticated mammals (boars, stallions, bulls, dogs, tom cats, goats [bucks], sheep [rams], etc.) and occasionally on domestic fowl like chickens (though not commonly) for reasons including sterilize them due to their inferior breeding qualities, to make them more easier to handle and less dangerous, reduce their ability to wander (esp. dogs and cats) or scent-mark, etc.

Answer 2

Castration stands for any action that causes a male to lose the function of testicles or female loses the function of ovaries.

Answer 3

To surgically remove the testicles.