sexed

1. 1
   adjectivein compounds

   Having a libido or sex drive of a particular, often measurable, degree.

   Biographers painted the composer as an intensely sexed and restless man.

   The clinic treats patients who feel less sexed than they once were.

   Similarsexual, passionate, sensual, libidinous, lustful

   Oppositesexless, passionless

   Note

   A word that rarely stands alone: it leans on an adverb of degree, as in highly-sexed, and the adverb does the measuring. Writers hyphenate the pair before a noun or leave it open. Either way the modifier carries the meaning. A bare "sexed person" sounds unfinished, or gets read as the plain male-or-female sense.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of sex.

   Hatchery workers sexed thousands of chicks each day.

   Once the ducklings had been sexed, they were separated into pens.

   Note

   A regular past form that serves two quite different verbs. The farmyard verb takes an animal as its object (workers sexed the chicks), and its participle settles into the adjective for sorted stock. The other verb is colloquial American usage for having sex, with or without an object. Outside a hatchery, "they sexed" will be read that way, so keep it out of formal writing.

3. 3
   adjective

   Of either the male or the female sex.

   Philosophers debated whether angels were sexed beings at all.

   In sexually reproducing species, every individual is sexed from birth.

   Similargendered

   Oppositesexless, asexual

4. 4
   adjective

   Having had its sex identified, usually through inspection or testing.

   Commercial hatcheries ship sexed pullets to farmers who want only laying hens.

   The aquarium kept its sexed fish in separate tanks to manage breeding.

   Oppositeunsexed

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