intercross

To cross back over one another

Noun

  1. The act or product of intercrossing
    • Intercrosses are particularly useful with recessive mutations maintained in a small colony. - 2000, Xavier Montagutelli, “Determining the Genetic Basis of a New Trait”, in Sundberg & Boggess, editors, Systematic...

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Indo-European *h₁entér Proto-Italic *n̥ter Latin inter Latin inter-bor. English inter- English cross English intercross From inter- + cross.

Forms

intercrosses

Related

backcross outcross

Verb

  1. To cross back over one another
    • From this trunk, like a tower, rose an enormous tenfold ramification, the branches of which crossed and intercrossed, and forked and developed, […] - 1895, Jules Verne, Captain Antifer, page 134:
  2. To breed two strains having a common ancestry with one another
    • A species varies occasionally in two directions, but owing to their free intercrossing they (the variations) never increase. - 1916, Alfred Russel Wallace, Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 1:

Forms

intercrosses intercrossing intercrossed