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Showing results for "breeding"
  • present participle of breed.
Synonyms

breeding

American  
[bree-ding] / ˈbri dɪŋ /

noun

  • breedings
    plural
  1. the producing of offspring.

  2. the improvement or development of breeds of livestock, as by selective mating and hybridization.

  3. Horticulture. the production of new forms by selection, crossing, and hybridizing.

  4. training; nurture.

    He is a man of good breeding.

  5. the result of upbringing or training as shown in behavior and manners; manners, especially good manners.

    You can tell when a person has breeding.

  6. Energy. the production in a nuclear reactor of more fissile material than is consumed.


breeding British  
/ ˈbriːdɪŋ /

noun

  1. the process of bearing offspring; reproduction

  2. the process of producing plants or animals by sexual reproduction

  3. the result of good training, esp the knowledge of correct social behaviour; refinement

    a man of breeding

  4. a person's line of descent

    his breeding was suspect

  5. physics a process occurring in a nuclear reactor as a result of which more fissionable material is produced than is used up

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns


Etymology

Origin of breeding

Middle English word dating back to 1250–1300; see origin at breed, -ing 1


Vocabulary lists containing breeding

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

“It’s a great breeding ground for this new filmmaking,” Dave Clark, cofounder of AI film production studio Promise, said about Culver City.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026

"Thanks to this breeding programme, it will. Her name will be linked to a species we saved, not one we lost."

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

Precision breeding and artificial intelligence may provide additional ways to redesign HMA domains, allowing them to recognize pathogen molecules that previously escaped detection.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026

Between 2021 and 2022, Paxton purchased two homes in Ocala, known for its horse breeding industry, and a townhome in Dunedin, on the Gulf of Mexico near Tampa.

From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026

The breeding season was over, and she was molting.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

Louise Leatherdale, owner and co-founder of Leatherdale Farms in Long Lake, Minn., which is considered among the best breeders of dressage horses, said she might charge as little as $2,000 for two breedings.

From New York Times ● May 4, 2018

From there, he landed a job selling stallion breedings for the famed Walmac Farm.

From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2015

In his new home, Yankee Gentleman quickly jumped from about 30 breedings to 94, at $5,000 per time.

From Time ● Apr. 28, 2010

Survival of the sperm with 4 percent glycerol was so poor that only a few breedings were made with these samples.

From Preservation of Bull Semen at Sub-Zero Temperatures by M. E. Friedman

Why, then, these foreign thoughts of state-employments, Abhorrent to your function and your breedings?

From The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 07 by Sir Walter Scott

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