[breed] vb bred ; breed.ing [ME breden, fr. OE bredan; akin to OE brod brood] vt (bef. 12c) 1: to produce (offspring) by hatching or gestation
2. a: beget 1 b: produce, engender "despair often ~s violence"
3: to propagate (plants or animals) sexually and usu. under controlled conditions "bred several strains of corn together to produce a superior variety"
4. a: bring up, nurture "born and bred in the country" b: to inculcate by training "~ good manners into one's children"
5. a: [4]mate 3 b: to mate with: inseminate c: impregnate 2
6: to produce (a fissionable element) by bombarding a nonfissionable element with neutrons from a radioactive element ~ vi 1 a: to produce offspring by sexual union b: copulate, mate
2: to propagate animals or plants
[2]breed n (1553) 1: a group of animals or plants presumably related by descent from common ancestors and visibly similar in most characters; esp: such a group differentiated from the wild type under domestication
2: a number of persons of the same stock
3: class, kind "a new ~ of athlete"