breeding

noun breed·ing

Definition of breeding

1 :the action or process of bearing or generating

2 :ancestry

3 a archaic :education

she had her breeding at my father's charge
—William Shakespeare

b :training in or observance of the proprieties

4 :the sexual propagation of plants or animals

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See breeding defined for kids

Examples of breeding in a Sentence

She became involved in the breeding of sled dogs.
His politeness shows good breeding.
a person who lacks breeding

Recent Examples of breeding from the Web

Experts and the Mexican government have announced a plan to catch the few remaining vaquitas and enclose them in floating pens for protection and possible breeding.

— mark stevenson, The Seattle Times, "Activists blame Mexican government for near-loss of porpoise," 28 Aug. 2017
Experts and the Mexican government have announced a plan to catch the few remaining vaquitas and enclose them in floating pens for protection and possible breeding.

— Washington Post, "Activists blame Mexican government for near-loss of porpoise," 28 Aug. 2017
The public is welcome to attend this free event to learn the specifics of raising, breeding and caring for alpacas as well as live demonstrations.

— compiled by hannah johnson, star-telegram, "Events and activities," 25 Aug. 2017
The Voice was a real breeding ground for a number of significant black writers, Thulani Davis, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

— luke o'neil, Esquire, "Generations of Village Voice Writers Reflect on the Paper Leaving the Honor Boxes," 23 Aug. 2017
Despite these concerns about extinction, struggling dairy farmers often don’t have the time or resources to consider breeding cows who produce less milk than Holsteins.

— linni kral, The Atlantic, "The Fight for America's Disappearing Ancient Dairy Cows," 22 Aug. 2017
The new facility took two years to construct and it is hoped that the club will now have a new breeding ground for talent to develop - the last homegrown player to graduate through to the first team was David Alaba all the way back in 2010.

— SI.com, "Bayern Chairman Wants to Produce One Starlet a Year as Club Open New £64m Youth Academy," 22 Aug. 2017
Researchers followed from birth to adulthood 98 puppies enrolled in a New Jersey breeding and training program for guide dogs for the blind, where only about 70% of the dogs graduate as guides.

— giorgia guglielmi, Science | AAAS, "Coddled puppies make poor guide dogs, as this adorable video shows," 7 Aug. 2017
The latest breeding trend is introducing pink shades in the usually white-only flowers.

— dennis patton, kansascity, "Panicle hydrangeas require little maintenance, add big splashes of summer blooms," 29 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'breeding.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of breeding

14th century

breeding Synonyms

Synonyms

birth, blood, bloodline, ancestry, descent, extraction, family tree, genealogy, line, lineage, origin, parentage, pedigree, stock, strain

Antonyms

issue, posterity, progeny, seed

Related Words

heredity, succession; family, house; kin, kindred, relations, relatives; race

Near Antonyms

offspring; child, heir, inheritor, son, successor

BREEDING Defined for English Language Learners

breeding

noun

Definition of breeding for English Language Learners

: the process by which young animals, birds, etc., are produced by their parents
: the activity of keeping and caring for animals or plants in order to produce more animals or plants of a particular kind
: the way a person was taught in childhood to behave : good manners that come from being raised correctly