Word.ws English Dictionary

underbreeding

underbreeding is the present participle and gerund of underbreed.

Meaning of underbreed

Verb

underbreed (third-person singular simple present underbreeds, present participle underbreeding, simple past and past participle underbred)

  1. To breed insufficiently.
    • Whether this political torrent is to be for good or bad for the country at large, whether it is going to breed statesmen or underbreed statesmanship, are points on which a physician need offer no opinion.1884, Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, The Asclepiad

See all 2 meanings of underbreed

Noun

underbreeding (uncountable)

  1. A lack of manners or sophistication.
    • It was considered the acme of underbreeding to manifest any sense whatever of patronage in such deeds.1916, Princess Eleanor Hulda Calhoun Lazarovich-Hrebelianovich, Pleasures and Palaces

Origin of underbreeding

From underbreed + -ing.

From under- + breeding.

Questions about underbreeding

What does underbreeding mean?
Underbreeding means a lack of manners or sophistication.
What is underbreeding the present participle and gerund of?
Underbreeding is the present participle and gerund of underbreed.
What part of speech is underbreeding?
Underbreeding is a noun.

Words near underbreeding in the dictionary

  1. underbreaths
  2. underbred
  3. underbredness
  4. underbreeches
  5. underbreed
  6. underbreeding
  7. underbreeds
  8. underbrew
  9. underbrewed
  10. underbrewer
  11. underbrewers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underbreeding (page history and authors); underbreed (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “underbreeding.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/underbreeding. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.