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petting zoo

petting zoo

18 2.8
A place where people can touch and feed gentle animals like rabbits and goats for fun and learning
  • noun
  • /ˈpɛtɪŋ zu/
translation icon : zoológico de contacto
  • At the fair, there was a petting zoo filled with cute animals that delighted young visitors.
  • petting zoo or farm

Reminds me of one of those people who run those those lion petting zoos like in that recent document that just came out on Netflix.

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Examples

  • Should we just hit the usual petting zoo?

  • The Merrymead Farm was a regional attraction, and many children touched animals at a petting zoo with cattle, calves, sheep, goats, llamas, chickens, and a pig.

    Academic text (2003)
  • I used to love that petting zoo you took me to.

  • Head to the petting zoo.

  • Visitors could eat and drink while in the petting zoo.

    Academic text (2003)
  • And I was gonna take poor Peanut to the Halloween Carnival tonight for the petting zoo.

  • There is also a Children's Village, a petting zoo, a laser show, and great food.

    Blog text (9)
  • Let's go bug the goats at the petting zoo.

  • Levine thought they should check the petting zoo, which was in a nearby barn.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • I pictured the petting zoo at the amusement park, the goats and pigs and harmless hutched rabbits.

    Fiction book (1998)

How Interactive

petting zoo
18 2.8
to farm
42 1.0
zoo
474 1.0
exhibit
243 3.4

Surface Forms

petting zoo singular
petting zoos plural

Morphology

pet + zoo

The meaning 'a zoo where visitors can touch or feed gentle animals' is directly derivable from combining 'pet' (to stroke/touch an animal) with 'zoo' (an animal facility); 'petting' signals the activity available at the zoo. This compositional, descriptive construction follows normal English noun-modifier patterns and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should understand it.

Etymology

Petting zoo comes from the simple image of a small zoo where visitors can pet the animals. So, a petting zoo today is a place where children and adults can 'touch and feed' gentle animals.