breed
BREED, v.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, v.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, n. 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.
breeding
BREEDING, ppr. Bearing and nourishing, as a fetus; engendering; producing; educating.
BREEDING, n. The act of generating or of producing.
1. The raising of a breed or breeds; as, the farmer attends to the breeding of sheep.
2. Nurture; education; instruction; formation of manners.
She had her breeding at my fathers charge.
3. By way of eminence, manners; knowledge of ceremony; deportment or behavior in the external offices and decorums of social life. Hence good breeding is politeness, or the qualifications which constitute genteel deportment.