cross-breed
/ˈkrɒsbriːd
/verb [with object]
1Produce (an animal or plant) by mating or hybridizing two different species, breeds, or varieties: (as adjective cross-bred) a cross-bred puppy...
- He had bred cross-bred sheep for several years.
- We've cross-bred the donkey and the horse, the lion and the tiger, and I want more.
- They will cross-breed the mice from the two strains to create a population which has a mixture of metabolic rates.
1.1Hybridize (a breed, species, or variety) with another: they cross-breed traditional sheep with the local breeds from various English counties...
- This was accomplished by cross-breeding regular chickens with chickens naturally balding because of a ‘naked-neck’ gene.
- He produced his chicken by cross-breeding a boiler chicken with another breed that has a naturally bare neck.
- The stud goats will be cross-bred with Caprivi goats to improve the milk yields of the local goats.
1.2 [no object] (Of an animal or plant) breed with a different breed, species, or variety: the danger of weeds cross-breeding with crops...
- Two teams of scientists have found the weeds are cross-breeding with genetically modified crops, making them nearly impossible to kill with pesticides.
- Increasingly in order to be competitive, lamb on the butcher's slab comes from sheep cross-bred for size and fast weight gain, kept partially indoors and fed concentrates, thus ready for market at 13 weeks.
- They are in demand for cross-breeding with Thoroughbreds to produce 3-day eventers (dressage, field jumping, show jumping), jumpers and dressage horses.
noun
An animal or plant produced by cross-breeding: [as modifier]: a cross-breed Labrador...
- The canine has triumphed in the northern heat of the cross-breed awards.
- Cadras were a cross-breed of a donkey and a camel, and were common travelling animals.
- The tiny cross-breeds, no more than four weeks old, were dumped by a mystery man seen leaving the cardboard box in a field.