Showing results for "breeding"

• present participle of breed.

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

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonbreeding
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• breedings
  plural

Etymology

Origin of breeding

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

breeding breedings

Record-low Antarctic sea ice in 2022 coincided with the first-ever recorded large-scale breeding failure of emperor penguins, the report said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026

And in that humidity, mosquitoes were breeding — and biting.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

The team also compared physical and behavioral characteristics, including coloration, calls, breeding schedules, diet, and feeding behavior.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026

It’s a solution on a scale that only America could contemplate: launching an American Herd Rebuilding Program to increase the number and productivity of breeding females significantly by mixing in elements of the Australian herd.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026

Cooter saw I was starting to believe and said, “And if family breeding contests don’t count as some up-north, big-city learning mess, I don’t know what do.”

From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis

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

They quit their exact contemporaries at school and thence-forth are out upon the sea of life with men of all ages and breedings and nationalities around them and pressing them hard.

From Command by William McFee

They were of all births and breedings, but almost all of them, like myself, under a cloud.

From Adela Cathcart, Volume 2 by George MacDonald

Related Words

• development
• rearing
• training