Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

breed       (brēd)  Pronunciation Key  v.   bred (brěd), breed·ing, breeds v.   tr. To produce (offspring); give birth to or hatch. To bring about; engender: "Admission of guilt tends to breed public sympathy" (Jonathan Alter). To cause to reproduce, especially by controlled mating and selection: breed cattle. To develop new or improved strains in (organisms), chiefly through controlled mating and selection of offspring for desirable traits. To inseminate or impregnate; mate with. To rear or train; bring up: a writer who was bred in a seafaring culture. To be the place of origin of: Austria breeds great skiers. To produce (fissionable material) in a breeder reactor. v.   intr. To produce offspring. To copulate; mate. To originate and develop: Mischief breeds in bored minds. n.   A group of organisms having common ancestors and certain distinguishable characteristics, especially a group within a species developed by artificial selection and maintained by controlled propagation. A kind; a sort: a new breed of politician; a new breed of computer. Offensive A person of mixed racial descent; a half-breed. [Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan; see bhreu- in Indo-European roots.]

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
breed 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

breed
noun
1.	a special variety of domesticated animals within a species; "he experimented on a particular breed of white rats"; "he created a new strain of sheep"
2.	a special type; "Google represents a new breed of entrepreneurs"
verb
1.	call forth [syn: engender]
2.	copulate with a female, used especially of horses; "The horse covers the mare"
3.	cause to procreate (animals); "She breeds dogs"
4.	have young (animals) or reproduce (organisms); "pandas rarely breed in captivity"; "These bacteria reproduce"

American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms - Cite This Source - Share This

breed

see familiarity breeds contempt.

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

breed       (brēd)  Pronunciation Key  Verb   To produce or reproduce by giving birth or hatching. To raise animals or plants, often to produce new or improved types. Noun   A group of organisms having common ancestors and sharing certain traits that are not shared with other members of the same species. Breeds are usually produced by mating selected parents.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.