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breed

 - 7 dictionary results

breed

  [breed] verb, bred, breed⋅ing, noun
Use breed in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to produce (offspring); procreate; engender.
2. to produce by mating; propagate sexually; reproduce: Ten mice were bred in the laboratory.
3. Horticulture.
a. to cause to reproduce by controlled pollination.
b. to improve by controlled pollination and selection.
4. to raise (cattle, sheep, etc.): He breeds longhorns on the ranch.
5. to cause or be the source of; engender; give rise to: Dirt breeds disease. Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes.
6. to develop by training or education; bring up; rear: He was born and bred a gentleman.
7. Energy. to produce more fissile nuclear fuel than is consumed in a reactor.
8. to impregnate; mate: Breed a strong mare with a fast stallion and hope for a Derby winner.
–verb (used without object)
9. to produce offspring: Many animals breed in the spring.
10. to be engendered or produced; grow; develop: Bacteria will not breed in alcohol.
11. to cause the birth of young, as in raising stock.
12. to be pregnant.
–noun
13. Genetics. a relatively homogenous group of animals within a species, developed and maintained by humans.
14. lineage; stock; strain: She comes from a fine breed of people.
15. sort; kind; group: Scholars are a quiet breed.
16. Offensive. half-breed (def. 2).
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME breden, OE brēdan to nourish (c. OHG bruotan, G brüten); n. use from 16th century

Related forms:
breed⋅a⋅ble, adjective

Synonyms:
1, 2. beget, bear, generate. 5. promote, occasion, foster, produce, induce, develop. 14. family, pedigree, line.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To breed
breed   (brēd)   
v.   bred (brěd), breed·ing, breeds

v.   tr.

  1. To produce (offspring); give birth to or hatch.

  2. To bring about; engender: "Admission of guilt tends to breed public sympathy" (Jonathan Alter).

    1. To cause to reproduce, especially by controlled mating and selection: breed cattle.

    2. To develop new or improved strains in (organisms), chiefly through controlled mating and selection of offspring for desirable traits.

    3. To inseminate or impregnate; mate with.

  4. To rear or train; bring up: a writer who was bred in a seafaring culture.

  5. To be the place of origin of: Austria breeds great skiers.

  6. To produce (fissionable material) in a breeder reactor.

v.   intr.

  1. To produce offspring.

  2. To copulate; mate.

  3. To originate and develop: Mischief breeds in bored minds.

n.  

  1. 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.

  2. A kind; a sort: a new breed of politician; a new breed of computer.

  3. Offensive A person of mixed racial descent; a half-breed.


[Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan; see bhreu- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

breed 
O.E. bredan "bring young to birth, carry," also "cherish, keep warm," from W.Gmc. *brodjan (cf. O.H.G. bruoten, Ger. brüten "to brood, hatch"), from *brod- "fetus, hatchling," from PIE *bhre- "burn, heat" (see brood). Original notion of the word was incubation, warming to hatch. Breeding "good manners" is from 1596. Breeder scornful homosexual term for "heterosexual person," attested from 1986.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 1breed
Pronunciation: 'brEd
Function: verb
Inflected Forms: bred /'bred/;breed·ing
transitivesenses
1 : to produce (offspring) by hatching or gestation
2 : to propagate (plants or animals) sexually and usually under controlled conditions
3a : MATE b : to mate with : INSEMINATE c : IMPREGNATE 1 breed intransitive senses
1 a : to produce offspring by sexual union b : COPULATE, MATE
2 : to propagate animals or plants

Main Entry: 2breed
Function: noun
: a group of animals or plants presumably related by descent from common ancestors and visibly similar in most characters;especially : such a group differentiated from the wild type under domestication
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Idioms & Phrases

breed

see familiarity breeds contempt.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Encyclopedia

breed

application of genetic principles to produce plants that are more useful to humans. This is accomplished by selecting plants found to be economically or aesthetically desirable, first by controlling the mating of selected individuals, and then by selecting certain individuals among the progeny. Such processes, repeated over many generations, can change the hereditary makeup and value of a plant population far beyond the natural limits of previously existing populations. This article emphasizes the application of genetic principles to the improvement of plants; the biological factors underlying plant breeding are dealt with in the article heredity.

Learn more about breed with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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