breed
Americanverb (used with object)
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breeds,
present (3rd person singular)
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bred,
past participle, past
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breeding
present participle
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to produce (offspring); procreate; engender.
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to produce by mating; propagate sexually; reproduce.
Ten mice were bred in the laboratory.
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Horticulture.
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to cause to reproduce by controlled pollination.
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to improve by controlled pollination and selection.
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to raise (cattle, sheep, etc.).
He breeds longhorns on the ranch.
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to cause or be the source of; engender; give rise to.
Dirt breeds disease. Stagnant water breeds mosquitoes.
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to develop by training or education; bring up; rear.
He was born and bred a gentleman.
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Energy. to produce more fissile nuclear fuel than is consumed in a reactor.
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to impregnate; mate.
Breed a strong mare with a fast stallion and hope for a Derby winner.
verb (used without object)
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breeds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bred,
past participle, past
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breeding
present participle
-
to produce offspring.
Many animals breed in the spring.
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to be engendered or produced; grow; develop.
Bacteria will not breed in alcohol.
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to cause the birth of young, as in raising stock.
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to be pregnant.
noun
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breeds
plural
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Genetics. a relatively homogenous group of animals within a species, developed and maintained by humans.
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lineage; stock; strain.
She comes from a fine breed of people.
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sort; kind; group.
Scholars are a quiet breed.
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Disparaging and Offensive. half-breed.
verb
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to bear (offspring)
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(tr) to bring up; raise
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to produce or cause to produce by mating; propagate
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to produce and maintain new or improved strains of (domestic animals and plants)
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to produce or be produced; generate
to breed trouble
violence breeds in densely populated areas
noun
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a group of organisms within a species, esp a group of domestic animals, originated and maintained by man and having a clearly defined set of characteristics
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a lineage or race
a breed of Europeans
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a kind, sort, or group
a special breed of hatred
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To produce or reproduce by giving birth or hatching.
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To raise animals or plants, often to produce new or improved types.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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breedsimple
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breedssimple
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have bredperfect
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has bredperfect
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am breedingprogressive
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are breedingprogressive
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is breedingprogressive
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have been breedingperfect progressive
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has been breedingperfect progressive
Past
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bredsimple
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had bredperfect
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was breedingprogressive
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were breedingprogressive
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had been breedingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of breed
before 1000; Middle English breden, Old English brēdan to nourish (cognate with Old High German bruotan, German brüten ); noun use from 16th century
Explanation
To breed is to have babies, whether you’re a human or a hermit crab. A breed is also a specific type of a domesticated species, like a poodle or Great Dane. The word breed comes from the Old English bredan which means to "bring young to birth," but also "cherish,” which is how most people feel about their offspring. Awwwww. But the fact is that breeding is reproducing. Also, a breed is a strain or stock of a species, such as a Siamese cat. There are many types of dog breeds, cow breeds, and even pig breeds. Members of a breed usually look and behave in a similar way.
Vocabulary lists containing breed
Word Generation Science - Life Science
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Genetics - Inheritance and Variation of Traits
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"A Modest Proposal," Vocabulary from the satire
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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.
See Examples For:
They agreed, and in 1997, Max won best of breed at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
A rare breed of cattle has been introduced to the grounds of a historic house in North Yorkshire as part of a 30-year conservation project.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Should Swift’s dog inspire a true rush on Samoyed puppies, the breed would not be the first to gain popularity thanks to its celebrity associations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Environmentalists also say river bank fortifications destroy shallow-water zones where aquatic life and insects breed -- and the adjoining natural floodplains that act like sponges at times of excess water.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
One is a wolf-like, white German shepherd, and the other is a much smaller mixed breed.
From "The Sky at Our Feet" by Nadia Hashimi
Since parchment was widely used for centuries, DNA recovered from it may help researchers investigate how domesticated animals changed over time, how different breeds emerged, and what diseases affected livestock.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
Now she breeds her own yaks on 120 acres of pasture, foothills and mesa tops high in bucolic Ridgway, about 290 miles west of Denver.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
Large dogs die sooner than small ones, and Loyal’s theory is that breeding dogs to be very large has left some breeds with persistently high levels of IGF-1.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Only about two dozen were adopted domestically, partly due to South Koreans' preference for small breeds better suited to apartment living.
From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 2026
The smaller re-wilded breeds that people were living on, hamsters and cats, hadn’t herded this far into the bush yet.
From "The Marrow Thieves" by Cherie Dimaline
But that strategy has also bred controversy, with a sponsored factory tour for a group of Western influencers in 2023 sparking a strong backlash for glossing over alleged labour violations.
From Barron's ● Aug. 24, 2026
The internet was rife with what sociologist Ray Oldenburg called “third places,” a space separate from home and work that encouraged social interaction and bred cohesion in communities.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
Then, William Hyde, a middle-aged Black man born and bred in Nashville, looked dumbfounded—he too had been stricken by Chud.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
Unlike cows, Garner said, yaks have not had all their wildness bred out of them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 8, 2026
“Hear me, Pip! I adopted her, to be loved. I bred her and educated her, to be loved. I developed her into what she is, that she might be loved. Love her!”
From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
SeaWorld has faced a number of challenges since the 2010s, many stemming from the intense public criticism over its captive orca breeding program, which the company ended in 2016.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
The stars of this "penguin parade" are from a wild colony on the island, numbering up to 40,000 seabirds at the height of the breeding season in the southern hemisphere's spring and summer.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
This process supports a wide range of applications, including improved crop breeding, treatments for genetic diseases, and the creation of animal models used in drug development.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026
Social media is the new breeding ground for the kind of toxicity that the people mining Panettiere’s death for views purport to abhor.
From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2026
For example, the San Diego and Los Angeles zoos are now subjecting the last surviving California condors to a more draconian control of breeding than that imposed upon any domesticated species.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
