Breed \Breed\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bred; p. pr. & vb. n. Breeding.]

[OE. breden, AS. br[=e]dan to nourish, cherish, keep warm, from br[=o]d brood; akin to D. broeden to brood, OHG. bruoten, G. br["u]ten. See Brood.]

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. --Shak.

If the sun breed maggots in a dead dog. --Shak.

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. --Dryden.

Born and bred on the verge of the wilderness. --Everett.

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. --Bp. Burnet.

His farm may not remove his children too far from him, or the trade he breeds them up in. --Locke.

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. --Milton.

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. --Locke.

Syn: To engender; generate; beget; produce; hatch; originate; bring up; nourish; train; instruct.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Breed \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. --Shak.

Greyhounds of the best breed. --Carpenter.

2. Class; sort; kind; -- of men, things, or qualities.

Are these the breed of wits so wondered at? --Shak.

This courtesy is not of the right breed. --Shak.

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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Breed \Breed\, v. i.

1. To bear and nourish young; to reproduce or multiply itself; to be pregnant.

That they breed abundantly in the earth. --Gen. viii. 17.

The mother had never bred before. --Carpenter.

Ant. Is your gold and silver ewes and rams? Shy. I can not tell. I make it breed as fast. --Shak.

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. --Shak.

4. To raise a breed; to get progeny.

The kind of animal which you wish to breed from. --Gardner.

To breed in and in, to breed from animals of the same stock that are closely related.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)