Outcross

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The introduction of unrelated breeding stock to an existing population, especially one which is inbred or homogeneous.

    "Their two sons, Joseph I and Charles VI went still further in their pursuit of an out-cross by both marrying princesses from the Guelph house of Brunswick."

  2. 2
    A plant or animal produced by such methods.
Verb
  1. 1
    to crossbreed different strains of a plant or animal. transitive

Example

More examples

"Their two sons, Joseph I and Charles VI went still further in their pursuit of an out-cross by both marrying princesses from the Guelph house of Brunswick."

Etymology

From out- + cross.

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