How to Use crossbreed in a Sentence

crossbreed

1 of 2 verb
  • Red siskins can crossbreed with canaries to create red canaries, a bird prized by pet owners.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Apr. 2020
  • Red oaks often crossbreed with pin oaks, and the resulting trees will be yellow and sick in our clay soils.
    — Howard Garrett, Dallas News, 20 Sep. 2021
  • One of the latter is a giant man-eating, glitter-pissing cat-centaur crossbreed, but don’t even ask.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 5 Feb. 2026
  • According to the news release, the breed was the second most searched for in three cities and is a result of crossbreeding two types of dogs.
    — Marina Johnson, Detroit Free Press, 25 May 2023
  • Researchers are still trying to determine why the ants decided to crossbreed.
    — Gareth McGrath, USA Today, 28 June 2025
  • But certain rare species could be used both to partly replace crops in areas that are becoming too hot for them and to crossbreed new, sturdier strains.
    — Marta Zaraska, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Apr. 2025
  • The leaf color and shape vary with the variety as many of these plants have been crossbred, creating diversity.
    — Dennis Patton, kansascity, 14 July 2017
  • The dogs are crossbred from sociable huskies and hardier Greenland dogs and are baying and pawing for attention.
    — Taymour Soomro Scott Conarroe, New York Times, 10 May 2023
  • Over the years, red wolves began to crossbreed with coyotes, keeping those genetic traces alive through the resulting hybrids.
    — Moná Thomas, PEOPLE, 9 Apr. 2026
  • Right now, men’s fashion is Rico Suave crossbred with Ratso Rizzo.
    — Jacob Gallagher, WSJ, 27 Aug. 2018
  • The wild pigs in Canada are unique because they were originally crossbred by humans to be larger and more cold-hardy than their feral cousins to the south.
    — Marcus Lashley, CBS News, 19 Dec. 2023
  • So while your fellow co-workers are crossbreeding the chicken with the Macarena, take advantage of that night out with your boss to earn some brownie points.
    — Robert Cocuzzo, Town & Country, 12 Dec. 2016
  • Red siskins can crossbreed with canaries to create red canaries, a bird long-prized by pet owners across Europe and in the United States.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Apr. 2020
  • These working canines were later crossbred and exported across the Roman Empire.
    — Sonja Anderson, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 July 2023
  • In Arizona, an unusual rancher is trying to crossbreed cattle to produce less methane gas and better withstand drought.
    — Los Angeles Times, 11 Nov. 2021
  • Now, experts say two species of invasive fire ants found in the United States are crossbreeding, creating an even nastier and hardier bug.
    — Gareth McGrath, USA Today, 28 June 2025
  • These strains are created by crossbreeding sativa and indica plants to produce unique combinations of effects.
    — Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 6 Aug. 2023
  • Known for his prize-winning Brahman cattle, Cutrer crossbreeds animals and supplies his bulls' semen to cattle breeders around the world.
    — Meridith Edwards, CNN, 3 Sep. 2017
  • In search of a genetic basis for these parental behaviors, Bendesky and his colleagues crossbred the two types of mice twice to yield nearly 800 grandpups.
    — Andrea Marks, Scientific American, 1 July 2017
  • In search of a genetic basis for these parental behaviors, Bendesky and his colleagues crossbred the two types of mice twice to yield nearly 800 grandpups.
    — Andrea Marks, Scientific American, 1 July 2017
  • These bees are a hybrid between African and European honeybees, which were crossbred to produce mild-mannered, productive bees.
    — Laura Daniella Sepulveda, AZCentral.com, 9 July 2025
  • Waterfowl crossbreed more than any other bird—more than 400 combinations of hybrid waterfowl have been recorded.
    — Ryan Chelius, Outdoor Life, 1 Mar. 2021
  • But the tests conducted so far suggest that no Vancouver Island orca females have broken social lines to crossbreed for a very long time--for many thousands of years at least.
    — Glen Martin, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
  • Because myotonia congenita is a recessive gene, goats that are crossbred with other breeds typically do not display fainting behaviors.
    — Sarah Gibbens, National Geographic, 16 Feb. 2017
  • Designer crossbreed dogs are increasingly popular pets.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 19 Mar. 2026
  • The chimeras, or hybrid creatures, that populate Veronica Barker-Barzel’s art crossbreed the banal and the fantastic.
    — Washington Post, 27 Nov. 2020
  • Contributor Humans have been crossbreeding and training dogs for centuries to achieve perfect protection companions.
    — Jon Stojan, USA TODAY, 22 Aug. 2023
  • For the uninitiated, heirlooms are typically older varieties that have been reproduced from seed for at least three generations without crossbreeding.
    — Jeanette Marantos, latimes.com, 7 Apr. 2018
  • The Grand Canyon bison are descendants of those introduced to the area in the early 1900s as part of a ranching operation to crossbreed them with cattle.
    — USA TODAY, 4 Sep. 2019
  • What’s more, current conservation practices could be causing these genetically distinct species to crossbreed with one another, effectively fusing them into a single species.
    — Katie Langin, Science | AAAS, 25 May 2018

crossbreed

2 of 2 noun
  • The pigs may be crossbreeds, and have never met a bellota in their lives.
    — The Economist, 19 Apr. 2018
  • Some were home-schooled, and this crossbreed campus provides a bridge to college life.
    — Susan Christian Goulding, Orange County Register, 12 Jan. 2017
  • To add to the surprise, some crossbreeds may even grow larger than either parent.
    — Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 30 Jan. 2025
  • Moulard is a crossbreed of Pekin and Muscovy, often used for foie gras.
    — Kathleen Squires, WSJ, 9 Sep. 2022
  • Those that did not fit cleanly into a single breed were classified as a crossbreed.
    — Jack Tamisiea, Scientific American, 2 Feb. 2024
  • These puppies, believed to be a collie-working dog crossbreed, were left in the park, posing a threat to the local wildlife.
    — Real-Time News Team, Miami Herald, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Some is shipped to base camp by helicopter, but much of the gear is carried there by yaks, yak/cattle crossbreeds called dzopkio, mules and horses.
    — Alton C. Byers, The Conversation, 1 May 2024
  • Their results contradict some of the most popular assumptions about these crossbreed dogs.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Both are crossbreeds of Angus cattle and Scottish Highland cows.
    — Anna Ben Yehuda Rahmanan, Fortune, 20 Jan. 2020
  • Bichon poodles, also known as poochons, are a crossbreed of the Bichon Frise and the toy or miniature poodle.
    — Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
  • The goldendoodle named Bruno is crossbreed of a golden retriever and a poodle, and is known to have unique fur—loose curls and sometimes shaggy.
    — Liz O'Connell, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 June 2025
  • Each crossbreed comes from a poodle bred with a cavalier King Charles spaniel, cocker spaniel, or Labrador retriever.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 19 Mar. 2026
  • Regrettably, there are no gambles in this crossbreed of sports movie and doggy drama that dutifully — and lazily — stays on course from beginning to end.
    — Thomas Floyd, Washington Post, 13 Mar. 2024
  • Marlo the cockapoo, a crossbreed of a miniature poodle and cocker spaniel, joined Andrew Hall's family just weeks ago.
    — Rachael O'Connor, Newsweek, 30 Jan. 2025
  • Maltipoos, a crossbreed of Maltese terrier and poodle, are known for their intelligence and playful nature.
    — Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 Oct. 2025
  • By selecting various friends in her wanderings, Sophie’s mom had spawned not just one sort of crossbreed, but several in that same litter.
    — Charles Hammer, Kansas City Star, 26 Feb. 2025
  • Without using wheat, rye, barley, couscous, bulgur, and other crossbreeds of those grains, gluten-free pasta can be made from brown rice, white rice, corn, legumes, quinoa, edamame, lentils, or beans.
    — Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 18 June 2025
  • The crossbreed was already banned late last year in England and Wales, according to the Irish Examiner.
    — Theresa Braine, New York Daily News, 5 June 2024
  • Lined with warm fabric and designed to keep water out, the vegan shoes, which are kind of like a boot-and-sneaker crossbreed, sold out almost instantly upon launch the past two seasons, per the brand.
    — Alyssa Grabinski, Peoplemag, 25 Oct. 2023
  • One of the pups featured in the video is five-year-old Tegan, a crossbreed who arrived at the shelter in July 2022, while pregnant with eight puppies.
    — Lucy Notarantonio, Newsweek, 12 Dec. 2024
  • Golden doodles, a crossbreed between golden retrievers and poodles, are known for their affectionate and sociable nature.
    — Melissa Fleur Afshar, Newsweek, 10 Jan. 2025
  • The distillery enlisted the help of a scientist to create a crossbreed of barley that could stand up to extreme fluctuations in weather in the mountains, which ranges from hot summers to snowy winters.
    — Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 30 July 2024
  • Gantz’s only option was to blindly engineer, and crossbreed, scores of flies, in hopes that two carrying the recessive mutation would eventually find each other and mate.
    — Jennifer Kahn, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2020
  • While the findings aren’t a condemnation of any one specific crossbreed, the study’s authors hope the new information will help dispel ongoing myths about designer dogs.
    — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 19 Mar. 2026
  • But scientists warn that such crossbreeds are generally evidence of nature going awry under pressures created by humans.
    — Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 18 Oct. 2023
  • Maltipoos, a crossbreed between the Maltese and a miniature or toy poodle, are known for their affectionate nature and playful personalities.
    — Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Nov. 2025
  • At the same time, intentional crossbreeds—often marketed as designer dogs such as cockapoos, maltipoos, and doodles—have surged in popularity.
    — Lucy Notarantonio, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 Dec. 2025
  • These crossbreeds may keep hope alive And while naturally conceived elkhorn and staghorn coral may soon be a thing of the past in Florida, reef restoration groups will keep breeding and replanting them.
    — Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 24 Oct. 2025
  • The agronomist is a revered innovator in China, credited with developing the world’s first hybrid rice—a crossbreed that produces higher yields than normal rice.
    — Eamon Barrett, Fortune, 25 May 2021
  • Mitt Romney is heading to the Senate now despite being a crossbreed of a career executive and a Brooks Brothers mannequin.
    — Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz, Quartz at Work, 22 July 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'crossbreed.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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