breeding ground

noun

1. a place where animals breed or to which they return to breed.
2. an environment suitable for or fostering the development of an idea, thing, etc.:

   a breeding ground for violence.

Word History and Origins

Origin of breeding ground¹

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Long bottle-style feeders with yellow plastic flowers around nectar holes are breeding grounds for mold.

From Washington Post

They are actually going away from food sources and breeding grounds.

From Time

Long-distance migrants travel from their breeding grounds in Europe.

From Science News For Students

This environment has become a breeding ground for false claims.

From Fortune

In spring when kingfishers arrive on their breeding grounds, males establish their nesting territory.

From Popular-Science

The absence of law and order creates the perfect breeding ground for revenge.

From The Daily Beast

Of course the Internet, where the cat is king, has proved a fertile breeding ground for these ventures.

From The Daily Beast

Mayor Gardner noted that a lake that had served as a summer breeding ground for migratory cranes recently disappeared.

From The Daily Beast

At the time, New Orleans was a breeding ground for yellow fever and cholera.

From The Daily Beast

Used, hubcap-free tires are well known to sequester standing water—a perfect breeding ground for the next generation of mosquitos.

From The Daily Beast

It continues until mid-May, by which time the last of the migratory birds will have reached its distant breeding ground.

From Project Gutenberg

What has he ever done, in all his dull days, to make that harmless mind a breeding-ground for every sort of degenerate idea?

From Project Gutenberg

It is a breeding-ground for a whole new philosophy of heaven, hell, and the New Haven Railroad.

From Project Gutenberg

The family is at once the seat of the greatest liberty, and the home and breeding-ground of the greatest tyranny.

From Project Gutenberg

The Farn Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, are considered to be the extreme southern limit of its breeding-ground.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• hatchery