breeding ground
- noun
- /ˈbridɪŋ graʊnd/
- Among migratory birds, males generally arrive on the breeding ground before females.
- breeding ground for mosquitoes
- provides a breeding ground
- become a breeding ground
And the prospect that this is a breeding ground for future pandemics.
- And the prospect that this is a breeding ground for future pandemics.
- And I do think these IRL streamers need a wake up call because it's just a breeding ground for like toxic behavior.
- This is a recipe for disaster that turns into freshman week becoming a breeding ground where everybody's hooking up.
- I mean, that's it's a breeding ground for people to be unhappy.
- We're we're mad about the schools in Fairfax where it's not notoriously a breeding ground for racists.
- It's like that's that's that's that's my, that's my breeding ground.
- Christian Southern Christian Republicans are the grossest people in the United States of America and it is the breeding grounds where MAGA was able to take hold.
- So, yeah, oddly, social faux pas can be a breeding ground for perhaps social excellence in a way.
- What kind of sociopathic breeding ground training camp indoctrination Mormon bullshit is that?
Examples
-
Al Lang Stadium has a rich history as a breeding ground for legends.
Blog text (5) -
The island, declared rat-free in 2003, is an important breeding ground for the rare endemic yellow-eyed penguin (Peat 2006).
Academic text (2008) -
Each one is a breeding ground for a different variety of life.
Fiction book (1999) -
As such, it provides a breeding ground for scientific progress that thrives on such principles.
Academic text (1995) -
it's July, and the humpback whales are in their breeding grounds
-
Local conservationists want it moved because it is a breeding ground for giant cuttlefish.
Blog text (22) -
The climate, land use, and topography make the Delta Region of Arkansas a fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Academic text (2009) -
When old tires accumulate in landfills, they become a breeding ground for disease-carrying insects that can reproduce in trapped rainwater.
Academic text (2001) -
Ducks are arriving on their Northern breeding grounds almost two weeks earlier than normal.
-
The wetlands serve as a vital breeding ground for many species of birds during the spring.
Synonyms
A place where things start and grow, often causing trouble like crime or fake news
A place where birds or animals build a nest and lay eggs
Antonyms
How Fertile
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound is directly compositional: 'breeding' (producing offspring) modifies 'ground' (place/surface), so a B1 learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a place where breeding occurs. The metaphorical extension (e.g. a 'breeding ground' for ideas or crime) follows the same place-for-origin logic and is also readily inferable from the constituents and cross-linguistic patterns.
Etymology
Breeding ground comes from the image of animals gathering to have young on a safe patch of land, with breeding meaning making babies and ground meaning land. So when people call a place a 'breeding ground' today, they mean it is 'a place that helps something grow or spread', like insects, disease, or new ideas.