Breed

Breed - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

BREED, v.t. pret. and pp. bred.

1. 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.

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

3. To cause; to occasion; to produce; to originate.

Intemperance and lust breed infirmities.

Ambition breeds factions.

4. To contrive; to hatch; to produce by plotting.

Had he a heart and a brain to breed it in?

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

6. 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.

7. 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.

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

1. 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.

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

3. To be increased by a new production.

But could youth last and love still breed.

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

BREED, n. A race or progeny from the same parents or stock.

1. 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.

2. Progeny; offspring; applied to other things than animals.

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

bred: Found in the past tense in Ex 16:20 as a translation of rum = "to bring up," "to rise." In this verse, the manna is said to have arisen, i.e. "become alive" (with worms), to indicate that God's gifts are spoiled by selfish and miserly hoarding. The pres. act. occurs in Ge 8:17 for sharats = "to wriggle," "swarm," "abound," hence, "breed abundantly"; and in De 32:14 for ben = "son," "descendant," "child," "colt," "calf," "breed." The present participle is found in Ze 2:9 the King James Version for mimshaq, a derivative of mesheq = "possession," "territory," "field." The passage in question should therefore be translated "field of nettles" (the Revised Version (British and American) "possession of nettles").

Frank E. Hirsch