male bonding
- noun
- /meɪl ˈbɑndɪŋ/
- Nothing like male bonding.
- male bonding ritual
- a lot of male bonding
Examples
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Sport is one of the most significant institutions of male bonding and male initiation rites.
Academic text (1996) -
How's the male bonding?
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Is this some type of male bonding thing?
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Enough of this male bonding thing.
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When you guys have finished your male bonding...
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It's called male bonding, okay?
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You guys done male bonding yet?
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This is what you call typical male bonding.
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Male bonding makes me sick.
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Matt, Al, Carson, and I do a little male bonding while we go fly fishing.
Synonyms
A close, warm friendship between two men that is not sexual
Antonyms
How Close
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'male' (relating to men) + 'bonding' (building a close relationship), so a learner who knows both words can infer 'male bonding' as forming close relationships between men. This adjective+noun combination is a transparent, cross-linguistically common pattern and requires no idiomatic knowledge beyond the constituent meanings.
Etymology
Male bonding comes from the simple image of men making a strong bond by doing things together, like sports, trips, or shared work. So, male bonding means men becoming 'close friends' through shared experiences.