rearing

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of caring for and raising children or young animals until they are grown.

   The rearing of livestock requires constant attention to feeding and shelter.

   She believed the rearing of confident children depended on patient, consistent routines.

   Similarraising, upbringing, breeding, nurture

   Note

   A noun with old roots: Middle English rerynge meant simply "raising." Among breeders it can also name what is raised, and then it becomes countable. Researchers study blowfly rearings, and The Progressive Bee-keeper in 1896 sorts queens by the current season's rearing. Said of children, it usually names the activity rather than a batch, as in the rearing of children.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of rear.

   The stallion was rearing wildly against the tightening reins.

   Rearing healthy chicks requires a warm, clean coop and a steady food supply.

   Note

   One spelling, two quite different verbs underneath. With an object, it means raising offspring or stock: rearing chicks, rearing calves. Without one, it means a horse rising on its hind legs, or a temper or a tower rising: the stallion was rearing. So rearing horses can mean breeding them or watching them rise. As a gerund it takes a direct object, while the noun for raising young takes of: the rearing of chicks.

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