Pa. t. and pa. pple. bred. Forms: Inf. 3–6 brede, 6–7 breede, 6– breed; Pa. t. and pa. pple. 4 breed, 4–5 bredde, bread, 4– bred. (Also 6 pa. t. breded, pa. pple. breden.) [OE. brédan (:—bróedan) = OHG. bruotan (MHG. brüeten, mod.G. brüten):—OTeut. type *brôdjan, f. brôdâ- ‘warmth, fostering heat, hatching, BROOD.’ Brood, breed, are analogous to food, feed, blood, bleed.]
I. trans. (and absol.)
1. trans. Said of a female parent: To cherish (brood) in the womb or egg; to bring (offspring) forward from the germ to the birth; to hatch (young birds) from the egg; to produce (offspring, children).
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 10. Þæt sind beon … of ðam huniʓe hi bredað heora brod.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 1633. Ich not to hwan þu bredst … þi brod.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3895. Lya bred child, and hadd a sun. Ibid., 12223. Quat wamb him bare or brede.
1530. Palsgr., 463/2. I … brede yonge, as a woman or any other suche beest dothe.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, i. 7. Neither thou in begetting him, nor his mother in breeding him, did once thinke vpon the fashioning of him in hir wombe.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., II. iii. 146. Euery Mother breeds not Sonnes alike.
1850. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xviii. 184. A man kept me to breed chil’en for market.
† b. To generate. Obs.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, X. Prol. 52. The Fader … ever bredis His Son, his word and wysdom eternall.
† c. fig. Obs.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 75. We conceyue our owne sorowe, and breed therof … vnryghteousnes.
1595. Spenser, Sonn., ii. Unquiet thought! whom at the first I bred … And sithens have with sighes and sorrowes fed.
2. absol. To be pregnant, to be with young or with child. (Now chiefly dial.)
1629. Gaule, Pract. The., 85. So breeds the Virgin by her owne, and vnusual Seed.
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 352. Women breeding or with child.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 430, ¶ 3. Lucina … was breeding, and she did nothing but entertain the Company with a Discourse upon the Difficulty of Reckoning to a Day.
1723. Swift, Stella at Woodp., Wks. 1755, IV. I. 38. Like a lady breeding.
1885. Stevenson, Dynamiter, Ded. Yours is the side of the child, of the breeding woman, of individual pity and public trust.
3. absol. Of animal species: To produce brood or young; to have offspring; to propagate their species.
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 101. That other ȝer a faukun bredde.
1297. R. Glouc., 177. In eche roche þer ys … an ernes nest, þat hii bredep in ywys.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 49. Bredyn or hetchyn, as byrdys, pullifico.
1532–3. Act 24 Hen. VIII., x. Rookes … do daily brede and increase throughout this realm.
1653. Walton, Angler, 167. Most fish breed after this manner.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol. (1817), 240. Mankind will in every country breed up to a certain point of distress.
1836–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., II. 468/2. A mare has bred with an ass and has had a mule foal.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., i. (1873), 7. Carnivorous animals … breed in this country pretty freely under confinement.
c. fig.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, I. iii. 4. There is no measure in the occasion that breeds, therefore the sadnesse is without limit. Ibid. (1603), Meas. for M., II. ii. 142. Shee speakes, and ’tis such sence That my Sence breeds with it.
1612–5. Bp. Hall, Contempl. O. T. (1837), II. XIX. i. 5. Kindnesses breed on themselves.
1866. Argyll, Reign Law, i. (ed. 4), 2. Half the perplexities of men are traceable to obscurity of thought hiding and breeding under obscurity of language.
4. trans. Said of countries, situations, or conditions, engendering living things; also, in the passive, of animals being engendered or brought into existence (without reference to parental action).
a. 1250. Owl & Night., 1722. Theȝ heo nere i-bred a wolde, Ho was i-toȝen among mankunne.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., C. 143. Efte busched to þe abyme þat breed fyssches.
1413. Lydg., Pylgr. Sowle, IV. ii. (1483), 58. In these pepyns was bredde a worme.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 1164. Rotten timber breedeth wormes.
1590. Greene, Never too late (1600), 9. Women are vniuersally mala necessaria, wheresoeuer they be eyther bred or brought vp.
1653. Walton, Angler, 85. There be certaine waters that breed Trouts.
1675. Hobbes, Odyss., IX. 30. Rocky is Ithaca … But breedeth able men.
1802. Bingley, Anim. Biog. (1813), III. 122. This insect … is bred and nourished in bacon.
1883. Eng. Illustr. Mag., Nov., 72. A hard place … to live in, and fit to breed a hardy race.
5. Of the natural production of things inanimate: now esp. in ‘to breed fever’ and the like; also fig. ‘to breed bad blood’ (see BLOOD), etc.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 257. Hit was þe forme-foster þat þe folde bred.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. xxviii. (1495), 339. Oores of metall ben gendred and bred depe wythin the erthe. Ibid., XV. xlii. 503. Creta bredyth precyous stones.
1598. W. Phillips, Linschoten’s Trav., in Arb., Garner, III. 30. The great number of the men in the ship was the cause of breeding the same [plague].
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 496. To suck all [the milk] that their dams can breed.
1657. Austen, Fruit Trees, I. 84. Figs are said to … breed store of blood.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl. (1675), 68. Green Fruit breeds Sickness in the Body.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), II. i. 1. What is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh.
1863. Kingsley, Water-bab., v. (1875), 225. Dirt breeds fever.
† b. To develop (teeth, wings, or the like). Obs.
1544. Phaër, Regim. Lyfe (1560), S v b. About the seventh moneth … after ye byrthe, it is natural for a childe for to breede teeth.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 1010. Divinitie within them breeding wings.
1738. Shaw, Barbary, in Pinkerton, Coll. Trav., XIV. 622. When the little ones [lion cubs] breed their teeth.
† c. To produce (products of human art). Obs.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., II. 40/1. His pen … is dailie breeding of such learned bookes.
1699. Pomfret, Reason, 52. Those books that modern times have bred.
6. To give rise to, engender, develop, produce, create, cause, be the source of.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 55. Estmetes þe bredeð sinnes.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. civ. (1495), 669. The smell of the apples of mandragora … bredyth slepe.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 278. It breded & areised greate enuie and grutchyng against Caesar.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 20. Noght breeds theym coomfort.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, IV. i. 120. Warres may breed pouertie, and pouertie breedeth peace.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. iii. 140. Shee is young, wise, faire … And these breed honour.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., I. ii. 6. Lying cold breedeth Dreams of Feare.
1878. Morley, Diderot, II. 184. An iniquitous government breeds despair in men’s souls.
b. Rarely with forth (obs.), up.
1570. Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 42. Our reasons serue onelie to breede forth talke.
1605. Verstegan’s Dec. Intell. (1628), Pref. Verses. The beautious light Bred foorth of Phebus bright arising rays.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1876), I. i. 10. Acts which tended to breed up causes of quarrel.
† 7. with compl. To cause to become; to make, cause, bring (into a state, or to do something). Obs.
c. 1460. Launfal, 704. Sche ley doun yn hyr bedde, For wrethe syk sche hyr bredde.
c. 1465. Plumpton Corr., 14. God bred her to be delivered of her son Nicholas on Tewsday.
1625. Bacon, Greatness of Kingd., Ess. (Arb.), 477. Such a Proportion of Land … as may breed a Subiect, to liue in Conuenient Plenty.
† 8. To cherish, foster. Obs.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 200. Þe pet bret þesne kundel, in hire breoste al is attri to Gode. Ibid., 222. Moni … bredeð in hire breoste sum liunes hweolp.
9. To take charge of or promote the engendering of (animals); to ‘raise’ (cattle).
c. 1400. Gamelyn, 359. Þe bestis þou hast forþ bredde.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 8. For to rere and brede catell or shepe.
1676. Ray, Corr. (1848), 121. The manner of breeding Canary-birds.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 21. A great number of small cattle are bred in this province.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, iii. 28. A Frenchman cannot breed a foal without the assistance of the paternal government.
b. absol.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., i. (1873), 24. Hardly any one is so careless as to breed from his worst animals.
10. To train up to a state of physical or mental development. [This sense is evidently transferred from 1; the young creature being viewed as a rude germ to be developed by nurture.]
a. To rear (animals) so as to develop their physical qualities or intelligence.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 120. A horse mayster is he, that bieth wylde horses, or coltes, and bredeth theym.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 85. The Generous Youth, who … to the Plough the sturdy Bullock breeds. Ibid., III. 186. To chuse a Youthful Steed … To breed him, break him, back him.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), I. I. ii. 259. The wild ass is even more asinine … than that bred in a state of … servitude.
b. To train up (young persons) in the arts of life; to educate, tutor, bring up. Also with complemental object, as ‘to breed him a scholar, a papist,’ and with to, ‘to breed him to a profession, to the law,’ etc. (Bring up is the ordinary modern equivalent in all shades of meaning.)
† (a.) To train by education, educate, teach. Obs.
1570. Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 73. One of the best Scholers that euer S. Johns Colledge bred.
1615. Sir R. Boyle, in Lismore P. (1886), II. 101. I sent my eldest son … into England to be bred there.
1627. Donne, Serm., 47. Breed them not in an opinion that such a Faith is enough.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), I. 130. Sir John Mason … was … bred in All Souls in Oxford.
1676. Wycherley, Pl. Dealer, I. i. (1678), 9. She lodges in one of the Inns of Chancery, where she breeds her Son, and is her self his Tutoress in Law-French.
1706. Lond. Gaz., No. 4220/3. Restraining them from taking and breeding Apprentices.
1755. Johnson, Rambl., No. 180, ¶ 1. A wealthy trader … having the ambition to breed his son a scholar, carried him to an university.
1774. T. Warton, Hist. Eng. Poetry, Diss. II. 125. The universal ardour … of breeding almost all persons to letters.
1796. Southey, Hymn to Penates, Wks. II. 279. We grew up Together, and in the same school were bred. Ibid. (1834–43), Doctor, xxvi. He did not determine upon breeding him either to the Church or the Law.
(b.) To bring up from childhood, including all the circumstances which go to form the religious persuasion, manners, position in life, and trade.
1650. Baxter, Saint’s R., II. (ed. 5), 247. David, who was bred a Shepherd.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Eclog., VIII. 60. In Desarts thou wert bred.
1715. De Foe, Fam. Instruct., II. i. (1841), I. 176. Thou talkest as if thou hadst been bred a heathen.
1771. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 5. Thomas was bred a smith under his father.
1813. Scott, Rokeby, IV. viii. He bids thee breed him as thy son.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 239. Most of these functionaries had been bred Churchmen.
1857. Buckle, Civiliz., I. vii. 341. The old traditions in which they had been bred.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., vii. I bred him to the joiner’s trade, sir.
† (c.) Also To breed up. arch. or Obs.
1611. Bible, Pref., 3. Boyes that are bred up in the Scriptures.
1641. Hinde, J. Bruen, iv. 14. Very few Gentlemen … will bee at the cost to breed up two [sons] in the University.
1732. Berkeley, Alciphr., i. § 6. Suppose that I am bred up … in the Church of England.
1741. Watts, Improv. Mind (1801), 4. Arithmo had been bred up to accounts all his life.
1736. Pendarves, in Swift’s Lett. (1766), II. 229. The poor duchess is often reproached with her being bred up in Burr-street, Wapping.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Contrast (1832), 108. Care to breed up their children well.
1836. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm., II. ix. (ed. 2), 115. He was bred up in a human school.
11. To be born and bred, or bred and born: an alliterative phrase in which bred has usually sense 9, though formerly sense 1.
a. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 4209. In þe first he sal be born and bredde, And in þe secunde be nuryst.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 113 a. Where he was born and breden. Ibid., 133 b. In the same Isle born, breden, and brought vp.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 1165. We are so borne and bredde of nature.
1601. Shaks., Twel. N., I. ii. 22. I was bred and borne Not three houres trauaile from this very place.
1732. Law, Serious C., xviii. (ed. 2), 326. Born and bred in families that have no Religion.
1875. Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 288. He was born and bred in your house.
II. intr. (for refl.)
12. To come into being or existence, as a continued process; hence, to be engendered or produced.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 165. Wuremes breden in wilderne.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 16410. His blod on vs be, and on þaim þat of vs sal brede.
c. 1320. Anticrist, 32. Nu sal yee her … Hu þat anticrist sal brede.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 4. Heil crowned queene … Heil þat alle oure blis in bradde!
c. 1440. York Myst., xxxii. 130. Woo worthe þe wombe þat I bredde ynne.
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 46. The worme that breeds within it.
c. 1600. Lyrics for Lutenists (Collier), 14. It is a sweete delicious morne, Where day is breeding, never borne.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 696. Fleas breed principally of Straw or Mats, where there hath been a little moisture.
† b. Of eggs: To be hatched.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 108. They lay egges, which breed.
† c. Of vegetables, animal structures, growth, etc.: To come forth, spring, grow. Obs.
a. 1300. in Wright’s Lyric P., xiv. 45. Blosmes bredeth on the bowes.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVI. 68. Lewis on the branchis spredis, And blomys bricht besyd thame bredis.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg. Fro whens bredeth the synewes?
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., III. xi. 153. Certain strong band, breeding from without, and creeping to the Cheek-bone.
† d. Of mineral products: To be formed naturally, be produced. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R. (Tollemache MS.), XVI. iii. That stone [alabaster] þat bredeþ [nascitur] aboute Thebe. Ibid., XIX. xxiii. (1495), 877. Some colour bredeth in veynes of the erthe, as Sinopis Rubrica.
13. fig. To arise, originate, spring forth, make their appearance.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 1156. Of which ther gan to bredyn swich a fyer.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., I. iii. 10. His high exploits, whereof such wonder bread.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, I. III. iv. 585. [He] allowed … discontents & jealousies to breed in the army.
† 14. with compl. To grow or become (something). Obs.
c. 1325. Poem temp. Edw. II., lxiii. Thei … bredeth wode for wele.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1558. Þenne þe bolde Baltazar bred ner wode.
† 15. ? To nestle, to hive; to dwell. Obs.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 415. He Corounde me quene in blysse to brede.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 21. Quen þis Bretayn watz bigged … Bolde bredden þerinne.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1782. To sum wildernesse where as þei bredde.
III. Phrases. † To breed out: to exhaust the breed, degenerate. To breed in and in: to breed always with near relatives; the opposite being to breed out and out.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. v. 29. Our madames mock at vs, and plainely say Our Mettell is bred out. Ibid. (1607), Timon, I. i. 259. The straine of mans bred out into Baboon and Monkey.
1819. Byron, Juan, I. lvii. In that point so precise in each degree That they bred in and in … Marrying their cousins—nay, their aunts and nieces.
IV. Comb. formed on the verb-stem: † breed-sleep a., sleep-breeding, soporific; † breed-young a., having young, suckling.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, IV. (Arb.), 112. Hoonnie liquid sprinckling and breede sleepe wild popye strawing.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xxxiv. (1632), 413. Swifter then breed-yong Tiger, or heav’ns flash.
