Category:Breed

Breed, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bred; p. pr. & vb. n. Breeding.] Etym: [OE. breden, AS. bredan to nourish, cherish, keep warm, from brod brood; akin to D. broeden to brood, OHG. bruoten, G. brüten. See Brood.]

1. To produce as offspring; to bring forth; to bear; to procreate; to generate; to beget; to hatch.

2. To take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to bring up; to nurture and foster. Born and bred on the verge of the wilderness. Everett.

3. To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train; -- sometimes followed by up. But no care was taken to breed him up as a Harvard man. His farm may not remove his children too far from him, or the trade he breeds them up in. Locke.

4. To engender; to cause; to occasion; to originate; to produce; as, to breed a storm; to breed disease. Lest the place And my quaint habits breed astonishment. Milton.

5. To produce offspring, to be the native place of; as, a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds stout men.

6. To raise, as any kind of stock.

7. To produce or obtain by any natural process. [Obs.] Children would breed their teeth with less danger. Locke.

Syn. -- To engender; generate; beget; produce; hatch; originate; bring up; nourish; train; instruct.

Breed Breed, v. i.

1. To bear and nourish young; or multiply itself. The mare had never bred before.

2. To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, as young before birth.

3. To have birth; to be produced or multiplied. Heavens rain grace On that which breeds between them. Shak.

4. To raise a breed; to get progeny. The kind of animal which you wish to breed from. Gardner. To breed in and in, to breed from animals of the same stock that are closely related.

Breed Breed, n.

1. A race or variety of men or other animals (or of plants), perpetuating its special or distinctive characteristics by inheritance. Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed. Shak. Greyhounds of the best breed. Carpenter.

2. Class; sort; kind; -- of men, things, or qualities. Are these the breed of wits so wondered at Shak. This courtesy is not of the right breed. Shak.

3. A number produced at once; a brood. [Obs.]

Note: Breed is usually applied to domestic animals; species or variety to wild animals and to plants; and race to men.