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bred

American  
[bred] / brɛd /

verb

  1. simple past tense and past participle of breed.

bred British  
/ brɛd /

verb

  1. the past tense and past participle of breed

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. derogatory a person who lives in a small remote place

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
bred Idioms  

  1. see born and bred. Also see under breed.

Etymology

Origin of bred

sense 2: diminutive form of inbred

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

And he’s Southern California born and bred, the product of esteemed diamond factory Harvard-Westlake High.

From Los Angeles Times

Harrop has English parents and could have represented Team GB but opted to compete for France, where she was born and bred.

From BBC

Few 20th-century writers bred as many imitators as Ernest Hemingway, but his followers rarely matched the subtleties of his deceptively simple style.

From The Wall Street Journal

An entire army of boys who looked just like him, bred specifically so they could camouflage and go behind enemy lines.

From Literature

Pyrenean mountain dogs were bred to be livestock guardians, used to protect flocks from wolves and bears.

From BBC

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.