foaling

Meanings

1. 1noununcountablespecialist

   The act or process of a mare giving birth to a foal.

   Grammar: Uncountable: foaling can happen at night.

   Patterns

   • foaling season
   • a mare's foaling

   The vet stayed at the farm overnight in case the foaling went wrong.

   Foaling usually happens in spring, when the grass is rich.

   She watched the camera feed for any sign that foaling had started.

2. 2verbintransitivespecialist

   The -ing form of foal: giving birth to a baby horse.

   Grammar: No object: the mare is foaling.

   Patterns

   • be foaling
   • a mare foaling

   The mare is foaling early this year.

   They moved the horse into a quiet stall because she was foaling.

   A mare foaling for the first time needs close watching.

Word forms

Common combinations

foaling season

Foaling season runs from February to June.

foaling stall

The mare was moved into the foaling stall.

foaling date

Her expected foaling date is early April.

foaling alarm

A foaling alarm warns the owner when labor begins.

due to be foaling

The grey mare is due to be foaling any day now.

Synonyms and how they differ

giving birth

Giving birth is the general phrase for any animal or person, while foaling is only for horses.

calving

Calving is the same event for cows, so it is not used for horses.

lambing

Lambing refers to sheep giving birth and is not interchangeable with foaling.

delivering

Delivering usually describes the person or vet helping, not the mare herself.

Word family

foal noun

a young horse, donkey or similar animal

foal verb

to give birth to a young horse

foaled adjective

born, as in a colt foaled in May

in foal adjective

pregnant, said of a mare

Commonly confused: foaling or fouling? foaling or foiling?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “foaling”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words