breeding definition | Dictionary.com

breed⋅ing

[bree-ding]

–noun

1.	the producing of offspring.

2.	the improvement or development of breeds of livestock, as by selective mating and hybridization.

3.	Horticulture. the production of new forms by selection, crossing, and hybridizing.

4.	training; nurture: He is a man of good breeding.

5.	the result of upbringing or training as shown in behavior and manners; manners, esp. good manners: You can tell when a person has breeding.

6.	Energy. the production in a nuclear reactor of more fissile material than is consumed.

Origin:
1250–1300; ME; see breed, -ing ¹

breed

[breed]

verb, bred, breed⋅ing, noun

–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.

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.
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Link To breeding

breed (brēd)

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).
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.
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.

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.]

breed·ing (brē'dĭng)

One's line of descent; ancestry: a person of noble breeding.
Training in the proper forms of social and personal conduct.
Production of offspring or young.
The propagation of animals or plants.

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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Breeding

Breed"ing\, n. 1. The act or process of generating or bearing.

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

3. Nurture; education; formation of manners.

She had her breeding at my father's charge. --Shak.

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.

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.

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

Honest gentlemen, I know not your breeding. --Shak.

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.

Syn: Education; instruction; nurture; training; manners. See Education.

Language Translation for : breeding

Spanish: educación, modales,

German: das Benehmen,

Japanese: 育ち

More Translations »

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.

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