Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To produce (offspring); give birth to or hatch.
  • intransitive verb To bring about; engender.
  • intransitive verb To cause to reproduce, especially by controlled mating and selection.
  • intransitive verb To develop new or improved strains in (organisms), chiefly through controlled mating and selection of offspring for desirable traits.
  • intransitive verb To inseminate or impregnate; mate with.
  • intransitive verb To rear or train; bring up.
  • intransitive verb To be the place of origin of.
  • intransitive verb To produce (fissionable material) in a breeder reactor.
  • intransitive verb To produce offspring.
  • intransitive verb To copulate; mate.
  • intransitive verb To originate and develop.
  • noun A group of organisms having common ancestors and certain distinguishable characteristics, especially a group within a species developed by artificial selection and maintained by controlled propagation.
  • noun A kind; a sort.
  • noun Offensive A person of mixed racial descent; a half-breed.
  • idiom (a scab/scabs) To stir up trouble for oneself.
  • idiom (breed up a storm) To become cloudy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A race or progeny from the same parents or stock; especially, a race of men or other animals having an alliance by nativity and some distinctive qualities in common, which are transmitted by heredity; hence, family; extraction: as, a breed of men in a particular country; horses or sheep of good breed.
  • noun Hence Sort; kind: in a general sense.
  • noun A number produced at once; a hatch; a brood: as,“above an hundred at a breed,”
  • noun Increase of any sort, especially interest on money; usury.
  • noun Breeding.
  • To procreate; beget; engender; hatch.
  • To produce within or upon the body by development or organic process.
  • To cause; occasion; produce; originate.
  • To produce; be the native place of: as, a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds a race of stout men.
  • To bring up; nurse and foster; take care of during the period of growth: as, born and bred.
  • To form by education; train: as, to breed a son to an occupation; a man bred at a university: commonly with up.
  • To procure by the mating of parents, and rear for use: as, to breed canaries; to breed cattle for the market.
  • Synonyms To generate.
  • To nourish, nurture.
  • To educate, school, discipline.
  • To raise.
  • To beget or bear offspring; produce young; be fruitful: used figuratively of increase generally.
  • To have birth; be produced; arise; grow; develop: as, maggots breed readily in carrion.
  • To procure the birth of young: with from: as, to breed from a mare of good stock.
  • To be pregnant.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To produce as offspring; to bring forth; to bear; to procreate; to generate; to beget; to hatch.
  • transitive verb To take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to bring up; to nurse and foster.
  • transitive verb To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train; -- sometimes followed by up.
  • transitive verb To engender; to cause; to occasion; to originate; to produce.
  • transitive verb To give birth to; to be the native place of.
  • transitive verb To raise, as any kind of stock.
  • transitive verb obsolete To produce or obtain by any natural process.
  • intransitive verb To bear and nourish young; to reproduce or multiply itself; to be pregnant.
  • intransitive verb To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, as young before birth.
  • intransitive verb To have birth; to be produced or multiplied.
  • intransitive verb To raise a breed; to get progeny.
  • intransitive verb to breed from animals of the same stock that are closely related.
  • noun A race or variety of men or other animals (or of plants), perpetuating its special or distinctive characteristics by inheritance.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan; see bhreu- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • The profitable style of breeding for the great majority of farmers to adopt, is neither to cross nor to breed from close affinities -- except in rare instances, and for some specific and clearly understood purpose -- but to _breed in the line_; that is, to select the breed or race best adapted to fulfil the requirement demanded, whether it be for the dairy, for labor, or for such combination of these as can be had without too great a sacrifice of the principal requisite, and then to procure a _pure-bred_ male of the kind determined upon, and breed him to the females of the herd; and if these be not such as are calculated to develop his qualities, endeavor by purchase or exchange to procure such as will.

    Cattle and Their Diseases Embracing Their History and Breeds, Crossing and Breeding, And Feeding and Management; With the Diseases to which They are Subject, And The Remedies Best Adapted to their Cure Robert Jennings

  • With this, the price of this breed is also increasing.

    SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles - Part 652 2009

  • Gorant pumps up the stakes by stressing the case's importance as a potential attitude-changer; it could "disprove the public's basic beliefs about the breed," "help change people's minds about pit bulls," "tell the other side of the pit bull story," "show the world what this breed is all about," etc.

    Jim Gorant's tale of the rescue of Michael Vick's dogs, reviewed by Mark Caro Mark Caro 2010

  • Gorant pumps up the stakes by stressing the case's importance as a potential attitude-changer; it could "disprove the public's basic beliefs about the breed," "help change people's minds about pit bulls," "tell the other side of the pit bull story," "show the world what this breed is all about," etc.

    Jim Gorant's tale of the rescue of Michael Vick's dogs, reviewed by Mark Caro Mark Caro 2010

  • Besides its correct title and variations such as Gloster Spot or just Old Spot, the breed is also known as The Orchard Pig and The Cottager's Pig.

    The Week's Rare Breed - Gloucester Old Spot Pig 2007

  • Besides its correct title and variations such as Gloster Spot or just Old Spot, the breed is also known as The Orchard Pig and The Cottager's Pig.

    Archive 2007-07-15 2007

  • A very old tradition of the breed is the holding of foot classes at the major East Anglian shows.

    Archive 2007-06-03 2007

  • Toller owners adamantly insist that their breed is the ideal all-purpose hunting dog and house pet combination, with a unique skill other retrievers lack.

    Dogs for Ducks 1999

  • Toller owners adamantly insist that their breed is the ideal all-purpose hunting dog and house pet combination, with a unique skill other retrievers lack.

    Dogs for Ducks 1999

  • Since homosexuals cannot reproduce, the only way for them to 'breed' is to RECRUIT!

    06/08/2005 2005

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