female bonding
- noun
- /ˈfiːmeɪl ˈbɒndɪŋ/
- At the cafe, the group engaged in female bonding over coffee and pastries as they reminisced about their school days.
Examples
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Female bonding is integral to attire selection.
Academic text (2014) -
The women enjoyed a weekend of female bonding at the retreat, sharing stories and laughter.
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- We're getting into some female bonding.
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I need some female bonding.
Fiction book (2000) -
This female bonding cycle comes and goes.
Blog text (2) -
Usually, the only acceptable form of female bonding is to do with reinforcing.
Blog text (16) -
There's a female bonding ritual going on in the den.
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You know, so one, one thing that I just thought about, you mentioned male and female bonding during relationships, oxytocin and endorphins.
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These attacks were, of course, informed by the masculine fear of a female bonding that would obviously threaten the foundations of patriarchy.
Academic text (1994) -
PDA, free admission for women into a club, male and female bonding rituals that involve overt objectification of members of the opposite sex.
Blog text (1)
Synonyms
Feeling close to someone over time
A friendly trust between people who spend time together
A group of women who support each other and share common goals
How Close
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly compositional: 'female' specifies the participants (women) and 'bonding' means forming close emotional relationships, so the combined meaning 'close personal relationships among women' follows straightforwardly from the parts. This adjective+noun pattern is common cross-linguistically and would be readily inferable by a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
The phrase female bonding uses female and bonding, where 'bonding' means making a strong link or glue between people, so imagine women sitting together, sharing stories and supporting each other. That's why it means 'forming close friendships between women'.