[f. BREED v. + -ING2.] That breeds: see the verb.
1552. Huloet, Breding, or full of breadyng, fœtuosus.
1593. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 260. A breeding jennet, lusty, young, and proud.
1641. Milton, Animadv., Wks. (1851), 195. The malignity of that breeding corruption.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 80. A breeding Mare.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 55. A breeding woman is worth from one-sixth to one-fourth more than one that does not breed.
Hence Breedingness.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 132. The life … is but a frame or draught of springs, leavened into a breedingness.
