pret. and pp. bred.

To generate; to engender; to hatch; to produce the young of any species of animals. I think it is never used of plants, and in animals is always applied to the mother or dam.

To produce within or upon the body; as, to breed teeth; to breed worms.

To cause; to occasion; to produce; to originate. Intemperance and lust breed infirmities. Ambition breeds factions.

To contrive; to hatch; to produce by plotting. Had he a heart and a brain to breed it in?

To give birth to; to be the native place of; as, a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds a race of stout men.

To educate; to instruct; to form by education; often, but unnecessarily, followed by up; as, to breed a son to an occupation; a man bred at a university. To breed up is vulgar.

To bring up; to nurse and foster; to take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to provide for, train and conduct; to instruct the mind and form the manners in youth. To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed.

To produce, as a fetus; to bear and nourish, as in pregnancy; as, a female breeds with pain.

To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, as young before birth; as, children or young breed in the matrix.

To have birth; to be produced; as, fish breed in rivers.

To be increased by a new production. But could youth last and love still breed.

To raise a breed; as, to choose the best species of swine to breed from.

A race or progeny from the same parents or stock.

A cast; a kind; a race of men or other animals, which have an alliance by nativity, or some distinctive qualities in common; as a breed of men in a particular country; a breed of horses or sheep. Applied to men, it is not elegant. We use race.

Progeny; offspring; applied to other things than animals.

A number produced at once, a hatch; a brood; but for this, brood is generally used.