Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NEU'TER, n.¹ [nu'ter; L.; compounded of ne and uter, not either.]

1. Not adhering to either party; taking no part with either side, either when persons are contending, or questions are discussed. It may be synonymous with indifferent, or it may not. The United States remained neuter during the French revolution, but very few of the people were indifferent as to the success of the parties engaged. A man may be neuter from feeling, and he is then indifferent; but he may be neuter in fact, when he is not in feeling or principle. A judge should be perfectly neuter in feeling, that he may decide with impartiality.
2. In grammar, of neither gender; an epithet given to nouns that are neither masculine nor feminine; primarily, to nouns which express neither sex.