breed

BREED, verb transitive preterit tense and participle passive 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 intransitive 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.