breed
verb (used with object)
to produce (offspring); procreate; engender.
were breeding
-
past progressiveof breed.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
Then, starting a couple of years ago, Henen’s team began gathering, incubating and hatching eggs from the relocated adult tortoises to study whether they were breeding with their new neighbors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 21, 2024
According to the People's Trust for Endangered Species, they began escaping those farms and were breeding in the wild by the mid-1950s.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2023
Skeptical scientists asserted that the insects were breeding fine in northern climes but that something was taking them out on their way to Mexico.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 2, 2020
One summer, over a decade ago, biologists discovered that gray wolves — once driven to near-extinction in the continental United States — were breeding again in Washington state.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 3, 2018
He’d definitely come back a little later in the year and see if they were breeding.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
