the act of pairing a male and female for reproductive purposes; " the casual couplings of adolescents"; " the mating of some species occurs only in the spring"

of or relating to a marriage partner

of Mate

In the third generation, under different conditions of mating, the original Recessive, and submerged, traits re- appear, and reveal themselves in offspring- plants as the Dwarfness or the Whiteness that had characterised their grandparents. – Feminism and Sex-Extinction by Arabella Kenealy

There had been some mating in the fort below among soldiers and peasant women, to which she did not lower her thoughts. – The Lady of Fort St. John by Mary Hartwell Catherwood

The ever- circling wheels of birth, mating, death, so all- absorbing to most women, were nothing to her. – Gone to Earth by Mary Webb

It is the moon of flowers, and the birds are mating. – Montlivet by Alice Prescott Smith

The Wisconsin oak openings were a summer paradise for song birds, and a fine place to get acquainted with them; for the trees stood wide apart, allowing one to see the happy homeseekers as they arrived in the spring, their mating, nest- building, the brooding and feeding of the young, and, after they were full- fledged and strong, to see all the families of the neighborhood gathering and getting ready to leave in the fall. – The Story of My Boyhood and Youth by John Muir