Dictionary Definition
breed
Noun
1 a special lineage; "a breed of Americans"
2 a special variety of domesticated animals
within a species; "he experimented on a particular breed of white
rats"; "he created a new strain of sheep" [syn: strain, stock]
3 half-caste offspring of parents of different
races (especially of white and Indian parents) [syn: half-breed]
4 a lineage or race of people [syn: strain]
Verb
2 copulate with a female, used especially of
horses; "The horse covers the mare" [syn: cover]
3 of plants or animals; "She breeds dogs"
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- /bri:d/, /briːd/
-
- Rhymes: -iːd
Verb
- To sexually produce offspring.
- Of animals, to mate.
- To keep animals and have them reproduce in a way that improves the next generation’s qualities.
- To arrange the mating of specific animals.
- She wanted to breed her cow to the neighbor's registered bull.
- To propagate or grow plants trying to give them certain
qualities.
- He tries to breed blue roses.
- To make sure that one's young grow up to adulthood.
- To yield or result in.
- Disaster breeds famine.
Translations
to sexually produce offspring
- Bulgarian: отглеждам
- Catalan: criar
- Dutch: broeden
- Finnish: lisääntyä
- German: aufziehen
- Indonesian: besar
- Japanese: 育てる (そだてる, sodateru), 育成する (いくせいする, ikusei-suru)
- Korean: 낳다 (nahda, nat-), 새끼치다 (saekki-chida)
- Polish: płodzić
- Russian: плодиться (plodít's'a), размножаться (razmnožát's'a)
- Spanish: criar
of animals, to mate
- Finnish: paritella
to keep animals and have them reproduce
trans-top|to arrange mating of animals
- Finnish: astuttaa
to propagate or grow plants
to make sure that one's young grow up to
adulthood
to yield or result in
- Finnish: synnyttää
- Korean: 낳다 (nahda, nat-)
- ttbc French: se reproduire, élever
Noun
Translations
all animals or plants of the same species or
subspecies
race or lineage
- ttbc Spanish: casta
Dutch
Pronunciation
Adjective
breed, bredeDerived terms
Extensive Definition
- See Breed (song) for the song by Nirvana. See Breed (video game) for the video game by Brat Designs.
A breed is a group of domestic
animals with a homogeneous
appearance, behavior, and other
characteristics that distinguish it from other animals of the same
species. When bred together, animals of the same breed pass on
these uniform traits to their offspring, and this ability—known as
"breeding
true"—is a definitive requirement for a breed. Plant breeds are more
commonly known as varieties,
or cultivars.
The breeder or breeders who
initially establish a breed, do so by selecting
individual animals from within the groups gene pool that
they see as having the necessary qualities needed to enhance the
breed model they are aiming for. These animals are referred to as
“breed foundation”, or “breed origination”. Further, the breeder
mates the most desirable from his point of view representatives,
aiming to pass such characteristics to their progeny. This process is known
as selective
breeding. A written description of desirable and undesirable
breed representatives is referred to as a breed
standard. Breed specific characteristics also know as breed
traits are inherited, and purebred animals pass such
traits from generation to generation.
Thus, all specimens of the same breed carry several genetic
characteristics of the original foundation animal(s). In order to
maintain the breed, a breeder would select those animals with the
most desirable traits, to achieve further maintenance and
developing of such traits. At the same time, avoiding animals
carrying characteristics, not typical and/or undesirable for the
breed, known as faults or genetic defects. The population within the same
breed consists of a sufficient number of animals to maintain the
breed within the specified parameters without the necessity of
forced inbreeding.
The breed includes several bloodlines that can be interbred to
sustain the breed in whole without weakening the gene pool.
Domestic animal breeds commonly differ from
country to country, and from nation to nation. Breeds originating
in a certain country are known as "native breeds" of that
country.
Common animal breeds
breed in Catalan: Raça
breed in Danish: Race
breed in German: Rasse
breed in Spanish: Raza
breed in Finnish: Rotu
breed in French: Race
breed in Hebrew: גזעי האדם
breed in Japanese: 人種
breed in Lithuanian: Rasė
breed in Dutch: dierenras
breed in Dutch: Ras (mensheid)
breed in Norwegian: Rase
breed in Polish: Rasa
breed in Simple English: Breed
breed in Slovenian: Pasma
breed in Swedish: Ras
breed in Chinese: 品種 (動物)
breed in Russian: порода
References
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
accrue,
accumulate, advance, affiliation, animal kingdom,
apparentation,
appear, appreciate, apprentice, arise, author, balloon, be gravid, be knocked
up, be pregnant, be with child, bear, beget, birth, bloat, blood, bloodline, boom, branch, brand, break, break in, breed true, bring
about, bring forth, bring into being, bring to effect, bring to
pass, bring up, broaden,
brood, call into being,
carry, carry young,
cast, cause, character, children, clan, class, coin, color, common ancestry, conceive, concoct, condition, consanguinity, contrive, cook up, copulate, cover, create, crescendo, crossbreed, cultivate, culture, deme, denomination, derivation, descendants, descent, description, design, designation, develop, devise, direct line, discipline, discover, distaff side,
do, dream up, drill, effect, effectuate, engender, establish, evolve, exercise, extraction, fabricate, family, farm, father, fatten, feather, feed, female line, fetch up,
filiation, fit, folk, form, foster, found, frame, fruit, gain, gain strength, generate, genre, gens, genus, gestate, get, get ahead, get up, give being
to, give birth to, give occasion to, give origin to, give rise to,
go up, grain, grandchildren,
great-grandchildren, groom, grow, hatch, heirs, hostages to fortune,
house, house-train,
housebreak, ilk, improve, improvise, inaugurate, inbreed, increase, incubate, induce, inheritors, institute, intensify, invent, issue, keep, kidney, kids, kin, kind, label, lick into shape, line, line of descent, lineage, little ones, lot, make, make do with, make love, make
up, male line, manner,
mark, matriclan, mature, mint, mold, mother, mount, multiply, muster up, nation, nature, new generation, number, nurse, nurture, occasion, offspring, order, originate, outbreed, patriclan, people, persuasion, phratry, phyle, phylum, plan, plant kingdom, posterity, practice, prepare, procreate, produce, progenerate, progeny, proliferate, propagate, put in tune, put to
school, race, raise, ranch, ready, realize, rear, rehearse, reproduce, reproduce in kind,
rise, rising generation,
run, run up, seed, send to school, sept, set, set afloat, set on foot, set
up, shape, shoot up,
side, sire, sit, snowball, sons, sort, spawn, spear side, species, spindle side, spread, stamp, stem, stirps, stock, strain, strengthen, strike out,
stripe, style, succession, swell, sword side, take in hand,
the like of, the likes of, think out, think up, totem, train, treasures, tribe, type, variety, wax, widen, work, work up, younglings, youngsters