BREED

I. verb (bred; ~ing) Etymology: Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan; akin to Old English brōd brood Date: before 12th century transitive verb to produce (offspring) by hatching or gestation, 2. beget 1, produce , engender , to propagate (plants or animals) sexually and usually under controlled conditions , 4. bring up , nurture , to inculcate by training , 5. mate IV,3, to mate with ; inseminate , impregnate 2, to produce (a fissionable element) by bombarding a nonfissionable element with neutrons from a radioactive element, intransitive verb 1. to produce offspring by sexual union, copulate , mate , to propagate animals or plants, II. noun Date: 1553 a group of usually domesticated animals or plants presumably related by descent from common ancestors and visibly similar in most characters, a number of persons of the same stock, class , kind