\Breed\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Bred}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Breeding}.] [OE. breden, AS. br[=e]dan to nourish, cherish,
keep warm, from br[=o]d brood; akin to D. broeden to brood,
OHG. bruoten, G. br["u]ten. See {Brood}.]
1. To produce as offspring; to bring forth; to bear; to
   procreate; to generate; to beget; to hatch.
         Yet every mother breeds not sons alike. --Shak.
         If the sun breed maggots in a dead dog. --Shak.
2. To take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth;
   to bring up; to nurse and foster.
         To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed.
                                               --Dryden.
         Born and bred on the verge of the wilderness.
                                               --Everett.
3. To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train;
   -- sometimes followed by up.
         But no care was taken to breed him a Protestant.
                                               --Bp. Burnet.
         His farm may not remove his children too far from
         him, or the trade he breeds them up in. --Locke.
4. To engender; to cause; to occasion; to originate; to
   produce; as, to breed a storm; to breed disease.
         Lest the place And my quaint habits breed
         astonishment.                         --Milton.
5. To give birth to; to be the native place of; as, a pond
   breeds fish; a northern country breeds stout men.
6. To raise, as any kind of stock.
7. To produce or obtain by any natural process. [Obs.]
         Children would breed their teeth with less danger.
                                               --Locke.
Syn: To engender; generate; beget; produce; hatch; originate;
     bring up; nourish; train; instruct.

\Breed\, v. i.
1. To bear and nourish young; to reproduce or multiply
   itself; to be pregnant.
         That they breed abundantly in the earth. --Gen.
                                               viii. 17.
         The mother had never bred before.     --Carpenter.
         Ant. Is your gold and silver ewes and rams? Shy. I
         can not tell. I make it breed as fast. --Shak.
2. To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to
   grow, as young before birth.
3. To have birth; to be produced or multiplied.
         Heavens rain grace On that which breeds between
         them.                                 --Shak.
4. To raise a breed; to get progeny.
         The kind of animal which you wish to breed from.
                                               --Gardner.
{To breed in and in}, to breed from animals of the same stock
   that are closely related.

\Breed\, n.
1. A race or variety of men or other animals (or of plants),
   perpetuating its special or distinctive characteristics by
   inheritance.
         Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed.
                                               --Shak.
         Greyhounds of the best breed.         --Carpenter.
2. Class; sort; kind; -- of men, things, or qualities.
         Are these the breed of wits so wondered at? --Shak.
         This courtesy is not of the right breed. --Shak.
3. A number produced at once; a brood. [Obs.]
Note: Breed is usually applied to domestic animals; species
      or variety to wild animals and to plants; and race to
      men.