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Breed   /brid/   Listen
noun
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." "Greyhounds of the best breed."
2.
Class; sort; kind; of men, things, or qualities. "Are these the breed of wits so wondered at?" "This courtesy is not of the right breed."
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.


verb
Breed  v. t.  (past & past part. bred; pres. part. breeding)  
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." "If the sun breed maggots in a dead dog."
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." "Born and bred on the verge of the wilderness."
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." "His farm may not remove his children too far from him, or the trade he breeds them up in."
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."
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."
Synonyms: To engender; generate; beget; produce; hatch; originate; bring up; nourish; train; instruct.


Breed  v. i.  (past & past part. bred; pres. part. breeding)  
1.
To bear and nourish young; to reproduce or multiply itself; to be pregnant. "That they breed abundantly in the earth." "The mother had never bred before." "Ant. Is your gold and silver ewes and rams? Shy. I can not tell. I make it breed as fast."
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."
4.
To raise a breed; to get progeny. "The kind of animal which you wish to breed from."
To breed in and in, to breed from animals of the same stock that are closely related.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Breed" Quotes from Famous Books



... lay dry. It was a new deck. It cost me one hundred and thirty-five dollars to recaulk it. The second captain was angry. He was born angry. "Papa is always angry," was the description given him by his half-breed son. The third captain was so crooked that he couldn't hide behind a corkscrew. The truth was not in him, common honesty was not in him, and he was as far away from fair play and square-dealing as he was ...
— The Cruise of the Snark • Jack London
... war shall cease. Now will the poor weak women of the world Proclaim their strength, and say that war shall end. Hear, then, our edict: Never from this day Will any woman on the crust of earth Mother a warrior. We have sworn the oath And will go barren to the waiting tomb Rather than breed strong sons at war's behest, Or bring fair daughters into life, to bear The pains of travail, for no end but war. Ay! let the race die out for lack of babes Better a dying race than endless wars! Better a silent world than noise of guns And ...
— Poems of Progress • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... was to depend upon the price of wheat. Six bushels of wheat were reckoned to a barrel of flour, and the price of a bushel was put at four shillings; in reality it ranged from three to six.] They were also always engaged in efforts to improve the breed of their horses and cattle, and to introduce new kinds of agriculture, notably the culture of the vine. [Footnote: Do., "Minutes of meeting of the Directors of the Vineyard Society," June 27, 1800.] They ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume Four - Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807 • Theodore Roosevelt
... "Companies don't breed trotting horses and wear panama hats and put flowers in their buttonholes. The old Planter used to do these things and a lot of others. He was a bit of a patriarch in his way, too—well, he's gone and more's the pity. ...
— The Ghost Girl • H. De Vere Stacpoole
... corresponding in the Telugu country to the Kurmis and Kunbis, as many of their section names are the same as those of the Kapus. The Velamas apparently took up the trades of weaving and dyeing, and some of them engaged in military service and acquired property. These are now landowners and cultivators and breed cattle, while others dye and weave cloth. They will not engage themselves as hired labourers, and they do not allow their women to work in ...
— The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV - Kumhar-Yemkala • R.V. Russell


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