n. 1. A race or variety of men or other animals (or of plants), perpetuating its special or distinctive characteristics by inheritance. [ 1913 Webster ]

Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Greyhounds of the best breed. Carpenter. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Class; sort; kind; -- of men, things, or qualities. [ 1913 Webster ]

Are these the breed of wits so wondered at? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

This courtesy is not of the right breed. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A number produced at once; a brood. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Breed is usually applied to domestic animals; species or variety to wild animals and to plants; and race to men. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To bear and nourish young; to reproduce or multiply itself; to be pregnant. [ 1913 Webster ]

That they breed abundantly in the earth. Gen. viii. 17. [ 1913 Webster ]

The mother had never bred before. Carpenter. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ant. Is your gold and silver ewes and rams?
Shy. I can not tell. I make it breed as fast. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, as young before birth. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To have birth; to be produced or multiplied. [ 1913 Webster ]

Heavens rain grace
On that which breeds between them. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To raise a breed; to get progeny. [ 1913 Webster ]

The kind of animal which you wish to breed from. Gardner. [ 1913 Webster ]

To breed in and in, to breed from animals of the same stock that are closely related. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bred p. pr. & vb. n. Breeding. ] [ OE. breden, AS. brēdan to nourish, cherish, keep warm, from brōd brood; akin to D. broeden to brood, OHG. bruoten, G. brüten. See Brood. ] 1. To produce as offspring; to bring forth; to bear; to procreate; to generate; to beget; to hatch. [ 1913 Webster ]

Yet every mother breeds not sons alike. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

If the sun breed maggots in a dead dog. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to bring up; to nurse and foster. [ 1913 Webster ]

To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Born and bred on the verge of the wilderness. Everett. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train; -- sometimes followed by up. [ 1913 Webster ]

But no care was taken to breed him a Protestant. Bp. Burnet. [ 1913 Webster ]

His farm may not remove his children too far from him, or the trade he breeds them up in. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To engender; to cause; to occasion; to originate; to produce; as, to breed a storm; to breed disease. [ 1913 Webster ]

Lest the place
And my quaint habits breed astonishment. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To give birth to; to be the native place of; as, a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds stout men. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. To raise, as any kind of stock. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. To produce or obtain by any natural process. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Children would breed their teeth with less danger. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To engender; generate; beget; produce; hatch; originate; bring up; nourish; train; instruct. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who breeds or originates quarrels. [ Obs. ] “No telltale nor no breedbate.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ or } n. Breadth. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, breeds, produces, brings up, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

She was a great breeder. Dr. A. Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

Italy and Rome have been the best breeders of worthy men. Ascham. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A cause. “The breeder of my sorrow.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act or process of generating or bearing. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The raising or improving of any kind of domestic animals; as, farmers should pay attention to breeding. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Nurture; education; formation of manners. [ 1913 Webster ]

She had her breeding at my father's charge. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Deportment or behavior in the external offices and decorums of social life; manners; knowledge of, or training in, the ceremonies, or polite observances of society. [ 1913 Webster ]

Delicacy of breeding, or that polite deference and respect which civility obliges us either to express or counterfeit towards the persons with whom we converse. Hume. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Descent; pedigree; extraction. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Honest gentlemen, I know not your breeding. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Close breeding,
In and in breeding, breeding from a male and female from the same parentage. --
Cross breeding, breeding from a male and female of different lineage. --
Good breeding, politeness; genteel deportment. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Education; instruction; nurture; training; manners. See Education. [ 1913 Webster ]