mating

mating
    n 1: the act of pairing a male and female for reproductive
         purposes; "the casual couplings of adolescents"; "the
         mating of some species occurs only in the spring" [syn:
         {coupling}, {mating}, {pairing}, {conjugation}, {union},
         {sexual union}]
    

Mate \Mate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Mated}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Mating}.]
   1. To match; to marry.
      [1913 Webster]

            If she be mated with an equal husband. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To match one's self against; to oppose as equal; to
      compete with.
      [1913 Webster]

            There is no passion in the mind of man so weak but
            it mates and masters the fear of death. --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

            I, . . . in the way of loyalty and truth, . . .
            Dare mate a sounder man than Surrey can be. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To breed; to bring (animals) together for the purpose of
      breeding; as, she mated a doberman with a German shepherd.
      [PJC]

   4. To join together; to fit together; to connect; to link;
      as, he mated a saw blade to a broom handle to cut
      inaccessible branches.
      [PJC]
    

44 Moby Thesaurus words for "mating":
      act of love, adultery, aphrodisia, ass, balling, carnal knowledge,
      climax, cohabitation, coition, coitus, coitus interruptus,
      commerce, congress, connection, copula, copulation, coupling,
      diddling, fornication, intercourse, intimacy, lovemaking,
      making it with, marital relations, marriage act, meat, onanism,
      orgasm, ovum, pareunia, procreation, relations, screwing, sex,
      sex act, sexual climax, sexual commerce, sexual congress,
      sexual intercourse, sexual relations, sexual union, sleeping with,
      sperm, venery