Mate Meɪt Female Verb Middle Bre Foxes Dogs

• do foxes ever mate with dogs?
• after mating, the female kills the male.
• females that mate with several males are rare.
• the sexual signal from the adult female that tells the male she is ready to mate

mate

1. to have sex in order to produce young
• see also mating
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/mating
• Do foxes ever mate with dogs?
• After mating, the female kills the male.
• Females that mate with several males are rare.
• the sexual signal from the adult female that tells the male she is ready to mate
2. to put animals or birds together so that they will have sex and produce young
• = checkmate
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/checkmate_2

Verb Forms

• present simple I / you / we / they mate
• he / she / it mates
• past simple mated
• past participle mated
• -ing form mating

Word Origin

• verb senses 1 to 2 late Middle English: from Middle Low German māt(e) ‘comrade’, of West Germanic origin; related to meat (the underlying concept was of eating together). verb sense 3 Middle English: the noun from Anglo-Norman French mat (from the phrase eschec mat ‘checkmate’); the verb from Anglo-Norman French mater ‘to checkmate’.