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Webster 1913 Edition

Breed

Breed

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Bred
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Breeding
.]
[OE.
breden
, AS.
brēdan
to nourish, cherish, keep warm, from
brōd
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.
Yet every mother
breeds
not sons alike.
Shakespeare
If the sun
breed
maggots in a dead dog.
Shakespeare
2.
To take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to bring up; to nurse and foster.
To bring thee forth with pain, with care to
breed
.
Dryden.
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 a Protestant.
Bp. Burnet.
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 give birth to; 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

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To bear and nourish young; to reproduce or multiply itself; to be pregnant.
That they
breed
abundantly in the earth.
Gen. viii. 17.
The mother had never
bred
before.
Carpenter.
Ant
. Is your gold and silver ewes and rams?
Shy
. I can not tell. I make it
breed
as fast.
Shakespeare
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.
Shakespeare
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

,
Noun.
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
.
Shakespeare
Greyhounds of the best
breed
.
Carpenter.
2.
Class; sort; kind; – of men, things, or qualities.
Are these the
breed
of wits so wondered at?
Shakespeare
This courtesy is not of the right
breed
.
Shakespeare
3.
A number produced at once; a brood.
[Obs.]
☞ Breed is usually applied to domestic animals; species or variety to wild animals and to plants; and race to men.

Webster 1828 Edition

Breed

BREED

,
Verb.
T.
pret. and pp. bred.
1.
To generate; to engender; to hatch; to produce the young of any species of animals. I think it is never used of plants, and in animals is always applied to the mother or dam.
2.
To produce within or upon the body; as, to breed teeth; to breed worms.
3.
To cause; to occasion; to produce; to originate.
Intemperance and lust breed infirmities.
Ambition breeds factions.
4.
To contrive; to hatch; to produce by plotting.
Had he a heart and a brain to breed it in?
5.
To give birth to; to be the native place of; as, a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds a race of stout men.
6. To educate; to instruct; to form by education; often, but unnecessarily, followed by up; as, to breed a son to an occupation; a man bred at a university. To breed up is vulgar.
7.
To bring up; to nurse and foster; to take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to provide for, train and conduct; to instruct the mind and form the manners in youth.
To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed.

BREED

,
Verb.
I.
To produce, as a fetus; to bear and nourish, as in pregnancy; as, a female breeds with pain.
1.
To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, as young before birth; as,children or young breed in the matrix.
2.
To have birth; to be produced; as, fish breed in rivers.
3.
To be increased by a new production.
But could youth last and love still breed.
4.
To raise a breed; as, to choose the best species of swine to breed from.

BREED

,
Noun.
A race or progeny from the same parents or stock.
1.
A cast; a kind; a race of men or other animals, which have an alliance by nativity, or some distinctive qualities in common; as a breed of men in a particular country; a breed of horses or sheep. Applied to men, it is not elegant. We use race.
2.
Progeny; offspring; applied to other things than animals.
3.
A number produced at once, a hatch; a brood; but for this, brood is generally used.

Definition 2024

breed

breed

English

Alternative forms

Verb

breed ‎(third-person singular simple present breeds, present participle breeding, simple past and past participle bred)

  1. To produce offspring sexually; to bear young.
    • 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
      Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.
  2. (transitive) To give birth to; to be the native place of.
    a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds stout men
    • Shakespeare
      Yet every mother breeds not sons alike.
  3. Of animals, to mate.
  4. To keep animals and have them reproduce in a way that improves the next generation’s qualities.
  5. To arrange the mating of specific animals.
    She wanted to breed her cow to the neighbor's registered bull.‎
  6. To propagate or grow plants trying to give them certain qualities.
    He tries to breed blue roses.‎
  7. To take care of in infancy and through childhood; to bring up.
    • Dryden
      to bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed
    • Everett
      born and bred on the verge of the wilderness
  8. To yield or result in.
    disaster breeds famine;  familiarity breeds contempt‎
    • Milton
      Lest the place / And my quaint habits breed astonishment.
  9. (obsolete, intransitive) To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, like young before birth.
  10. To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train; sometimes followed by up.
    • Bishop Burnet
      No care was taken to breed him a Protestant.
    • John Locke
      His farm may not remove his children too far from him, or the trade he breeds them up in.
  11. To produce or obtain by any natural process.
    • John Locke
      Children would breed their teeth with less danger.
  12. (intransitive) To have birth; to be produced or multiplied.
    • Shakespeare
      Heavens rain grace / On that which breeds between them.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

breed ‎(plural breeds)

  1. All animals or plants of the same species or subspecies.
    a breed of tulip
    a breed of animal
  2. A race or lineage.
  3. (informal) A group of people with shared characteristics.
    People who were taught classical Greek and Latin at school are a dying breed.

Translations

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch breed

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [breət]

Adjective

breed ‎(attributive breë, comparative breër, superlative breedste)

  1. broad

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch breet, breit, from Old Dutch *brēd, from Proto-Germanic *braidaz. Compare Low German breed, breet, West Frisian breed, German breit, English broad, Danish bred.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [breːt]

Adjective

breed ‎(comparative breder, superlative breedst)

  1. broad

Inflection

Inflection of breed
uninflected breed
inflected brede
comparative breder
positive comparative superlative
predicative/adverbial breed breder het breedst
het breedste
indefinite m./f. sing. brede bredere breedste
n. sing. breed breder breedste
plural brede bredere breedste
definite brede bredere breedste
partitive breeds breders —

Derived terms

Anagrams

Yola

Noun

breed

  1. bread

References

  • J. Poole W. Barnes, A Glossary, with Some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy (1867)

Etymology

From Old English bredan, related to English brood, cognate with Dutch broeden, Low German bröden, German brüten.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /briːd/
  • Rhymes: -iːd

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