Definition of breed

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breed    (brd) KEY 

VERB:
bred  (brd) KEY , breed·ing, breeds
VERB:
tr.

1. To produce (offspring); give birth to or hatch.
2. To bring about; engender: "Admission of guilt tends to breed public sympathy" (Jonathan Alter).
3. 1. To cause to reproduce, especially by controlled mating and selection: breed cattle.
   2. To develop new or improved strains in (organisms), chiefly through controlled mating and selection of offspring for desirable traits.
   3. To inseminate or impregnate; mate with.
4. To rear or train; bring up: a writer who was bred in a seafaring culture.
5. To be the place of origin of: Austria breeds great skiers.
6. To produce (fissionable material) in a breeder reactor.

VERB:
intr.

1. To produce offspring.
2. To copulate; mate.
3. To originate and develop: Mischief breeds in bored minds.

NOUN:

1. A group of organisms having common ancestors and certain distinguishable characteristics, especially a group within a species developed by artificial selection and maintained by controlled propagation.
2. A kind; a sort: a new breed of politician; a new breed of computer.
3. Offensive A person of mixed racial descent; a half-breed.

IDIOMS:
breed a scab/scabs on (one's) nose Regional

To stir up trouble for oneself.

breed up a storm New England

To become cloudy.

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ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English breden, from Old English brdan; see bhreu- in Indo-European roots