breed

Pluralbreeds

Formsbreeds, breeding, bred

1. 1
   nouncountable

   The complete set of animals or plants belonging to one species or subspecies.

   The whole breed of mountain goat is adapted to thin mountain air.

   Different breeds of salmon return to separate rivers to spawn.

   Similarspecies, strain, variety, stock, type

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To keep animals and control their reproduction in order to improve the qualities of their offspring.

   Ranchers breed cattle to increase resistance to local diseases.

   She breeds sheep for finer, longer wool.

   Similarraise, rear, keep

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To produce offspring through sexual reproduction, mating and then carrying and bearing the young.

   Pandas rarely breed successfully in captivity.

   Many seabirds breed on remote, rocky islands.

   Similarreproduce, mate, procreate, multiply

   Note

   The word began with warmth. Old English brēdan comes from a Germanic verb meaning "to brood", and that verb comes from a root meaning "warm": to breed was first to sit warm over eggs. Dutch broeden and German brüten are its cousins. Plant breeders say a plant does or does not breed true, meaning its offspring do or do not faithfully repeat the parent's traits.

4. 4
   nouncolloquialcountable

   A group of people marked by the same notable characteristics or qualities.

   Investigative reporters are a tough breed who chase hard truths.

   He's part of a new breed of socially minded entrepreneurs.

   Similarkind, type, sort, species, variety

   Note

   Livestock language turned on people, and most at home in set phrases. A dying breed describes a human type that is disappearing, such as people taught classical Greek and Latin at school. The phrase treats a habit or training as if it were a lineage that is running out. Its informal tone suits conversation and journalism better than formal reports.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   Of animals, to come together as mates in order to reproduce their kind.

   Salmon swim upstream to breed where they hatched.

   Wild geese breed along the northern coast each summer.

   Similarmate, reproduce, spawn, nest

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To deliberately pair specific animals so that they mate and produce offspring.

   The stud farm breeds its mares to champion stallions.

   Conservationists carefully breed the remaining condors in pairs.

   Similarmate, cross, pair

   Note

   A stockkeeper's construction with a preposition attached: you breed one animal to or with another, as when a farmer breeds her cow to the neighbor's registered bull. The object is a particular animal, not a line or herd. That separates it from breeding for better stock, where a population is improved over generations; here a single pairing is arranged.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To give rise to or bring about something, especially gradually over time.

   Constant secrecy can breed mistrust among coworkers.

   Economic uncertainty often breeds political unrest.

   Similarfoster, cause, generate, engender, produce

   Note

   The proverb's verb: familiarity breeds contempt, disaster breeds famine. The subject is usually a condition and the object what grows out of it, often something unwelcome. The verb suggests slow, almost organic growth: the result is hatched rather than built. Milton, writing in 1634, already fears that "queint habits" might "breed astonishment."

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To propagate plants selectively in order to give them particular desired qualities.

   Horticulturists breed wheat varieties that resist drought.

   He breeds orchids prized for their unusual shapes.

   Similardevelop, propagate, cultivate, grow, raise

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A line of descent or lineage, together with the offspring or issue it produces.

   She descended from an old breed of highland shepherds.

   The sailors were a fearless breed, born to the sea.

   Similarline, lineage, stock, family, race

   Note

   An older, uncountable use meaning offspring, often without an article. In Sonnet 12, Shakespeare says nothing can defend against Time's scythe "save breed": children who outlast you. The countable modern breed names a type or line. This one can name the issue itself, and that is how to read it in older verse.

10. 10
    verbtransitive

    To give birth to offspring, or to be the native region from which a kind of living thing comes.

    Marshlands breed mosquitoes in vast numbers each summer.

    Wild horses breed foals across the open plains.

    Similarproduce, spawn, bear

    Note

    Here the subject is often a place rather than a parent: a pond breeds fish, a northern country breeds stout men. The construction lets a landscape take credit for what grows up in it. Shakespeare keeps the mother as subject in Titus Andronicus: "Yet every mother breeds not sons alike." Use it of regions and habitats as readily as of mothers.

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