interbreed
English
Etymology
Etymology tree
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɪnteɹˈbɹid/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -iːd
Verb
interbreed (third-person singular simple present interbreeds, present participle interbreeding, simple past and past participle interbred)
- To breed or reproduce within an isolated community.
- (ambitransitive) To breed or reproduce within a heterogenous community, the products of which produce hybrids.
- 1909, Knowledge and Illustrated Scientific News, volume 32, page 426:
- The rypes and our red grouse are identically the same bird, though disease has never been known in the former, and even interbreeding with the red grouse, to the limited extent they are ever likely to do, should do more good than harm.
- 2001 April 13, John Tierney, “The Big City; Stray Dogs As a Litigant's Best Friend”, in The New York Times[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 September 2024:
- The city's two-inch Environmental Review Technical Manual instructs regulators to consider adverse environmental impacts on "any subspecies" or "any distinct population segment . . . which interbreeds when mature."
- 2009 January 29, Ray Collier, “Country diary”, in The Guardian[2], archived from the original on 13 October 2026:
- The rock dove has so interbred with the feral pigeons from doocots and racing pigeon lofts that, as a pure species, it may possibly now be extinct in Britain.
- 2017 April 19, Carl Zimmer, “Why Are Some Mice (and People) Monogamous? A Study Points to Genes”, in The New York Times[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 November 2025:
- In the wild, deer mice and oldfield mice never interbreed.
Derived terms
Translations
to breed or reproduce within an isolated community
|
to breed or reproduce within a heterogenous community, the products of which produce hybrids
References
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “interbreed”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
- “interbreed”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms prefixed with inter-
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₁én
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₁entér
- English 3-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/iːd
- Rhymes:English/iːd/3 syllables
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