Anestrus

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    In female placental mammals—excluding humans and great apes—a phase of the estrous cycle during which the sexual cycle rests. countable, uncountable

    "1993, R. E. Larsen, S. C. Denham, J. F. Boucher, E. L. Adams, Chapter 13: Breeding Season Length Versus Calving Percentage in Beef Cattle Herds, Michael J. Fields, Robert S. Sand (editors), Factors Affecting Calf Crop, CRC Press, page 191, Duration of postpartum anestrus is the period from calving to the first estrus. This anestrus period is recognized as being a major factor in controlling the proportion of cows conceiving each breeding season (Wiltbank et al., 1961)."

  2. 2
    applies to nonhuman mammals: a state or interval of sexual inactivity between two periods of estrus wordnet

Antonyms

All antonyms

Example

More examples

"1993, R. E. Larsen, S. C. Denham, J. F. Boucher, E. L. Adams, Chapter 13: Breeding Season Length Versus Calving Percentage in Beef Cattle Herds, Michael J. Fields, Robert S. Sand (editors), Factors Affecting Calf Crop, CRC Press, page 191, Duration of postpartum anestrus is the period from calving to the first estrus. This anestrus period is recognized as being a major factor in controlling the proportion of cows conceiving each breeding season (Wiltbank et al., 1961)."

Etymology

From an- + estrus.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.