1. (v. t.) To produce as offspring; to bring forth; to bear; to procreate; to generate; to beget; to hatch.

2. (v. t.) To take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to bring up; to nurse and foster.

3. (v. t.) To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train; -- sometimes followed by up.

4. (v. t.) To engender; to cause; to occasion; to originate; to produce; as, to breed a storm; to breed disease.

5. (v. t.) To give birth to; to be the native place of; as, a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds stout men.

6. (v. t.) To raise, as any kind of stock.

7. (v. t.) To produce or obtain by any natural process.

8. (v. i.) To bear and nourish young; to reproduce or multiply itself; to be pregnant.

9. (v. i.) To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, as young before birth.

10. (v. i.) To have birth; to be produced or multiplied.

11. (v. i.) To raise a breed; to get progeny.

12. (n.) A race or variety of men or other animals (or of plants), perpetuating its special or distinctive characteristics by inheritance.

13. (n.) Class; sort; kind; -- of men, things, or qualities.

14. (n.) A number produced at once; a brood.

Thesaurus Entries