breed

Alternative forms

• breede (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan, from Proto-Germanic *brōdijaną (“to brood”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreh₁- (“warm”). Cognate with Scots brede, breid, Saterland Frisian briede, West Frisian briede, Dutch broeden, German Low German bröden, German brüten.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹiːd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːd

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.

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; offspring or issue.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 12:

     And nothing 'gainst Time's scythe can make defence

     Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.

3. (informal) A group of people with shared characteristics.

   People who were taught classical Greek and Latin at school are a dying breed.

Anagrams

• berde, brede, rebed

Etymology

From Dutch breed

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [breət]

Adjective

breed (attributive breë, comparative breër, superlative breedste)

1. broad

Etymology

From Middle Dutch brêet, from Old Dutch *brēd, from Proto-Germanic *braidaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [breːt]

• audio

  (file)

Adjective

breed (comparative breder, superlative breedst)

1. broad

Anagrams

• brede

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)