mating
NounWordNet 3.0
Noun (1)
- the act of pairing a male and female for reproductive purposes“the casual couplings of adolescents”“the mating of some species occurs only in the spring”Synonyms: couplingpairingconjugationunionsexual union
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onerousadjective
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Webster's Dictionary (1913)
“mating” is listed under Mate.
Mate transitive verb [past tense & past participle Mated; present participle & verbal noun Mating.]
1. To match; to marry.
If she be mated with an equal husband.— William Shakespeare
2. To match one's self against; to oppose as equal; to compete with.
There is no passion in the mind of man so weak but it mates and masters the fear of death.— Francis, Baron Verulam Bacon
I,... in the way of loyalty and truth,... Dare mate a sounder man than Surrey can be.— William Shakespeare
3. To breed; to bring (animals) together for the purpose of breeding; as, she mated a doberman with a German shepherd.
4. To join together; to fit together; to connect; to link; as, he mated a saw blade to a broom handle to cut inaccessible branches.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54