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breed.

To produce offspring sexually; to bear young.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈbɹiːd/[ˈbɹʷɪi̯d]
  1. To produce offspring sexually; to bear young.

  2. To give birth to; to be the native place of.

    transitive
    A pond breeds fish.
    A northern country breeds stout men.
  3. To mate.

  4. To keep (animals) and have (them) reproduce in a way that improves the next generation's qualities.

    transitive
  5. To arrange the mating of (specific animals).

    often · transitive
    She wanted to breed her cow to the neighbor's registered bull.
  6. To propagate or grow (plants) in an effort to give (them) certain qualities.

    He tries to breed blue roses.
  7. To take care of in infancy and through childhood; to bring up.

    born and bred
  8. To yield or result in.

    disaster breeds famine
    familiarity breeds contempt
  9. To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated or to grow, like young before birth.

    intransitive · obsolete
  10. To educate; to instruct; to bring up.

    sometimes
  11. To produce or obtain by any natural process.

  12. To have birth; to be produced, developed, or multiplied.

    intransitive
  13. To ejaculate inside (a person or a bodily orifice of same); to creampie.

    slang · transitive · vulgar
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰreh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰroh₁tús Proto-Germanic *brōduz Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *brōdijaną Proto-West Germanic *brōdijan Old English brēdan Middle English breden English breed Inherited from Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan, from Proto-Germanic *brōdijaną (“to brood”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreh₁- (“warm”). Cognate with Scots brede, breid, Saterland Frisian briede, West Frisian briede, Low German bröden, Dutch broeden, German brüten.

noun/ˈbɹiːd/[ˈbɹʷɪi̯d]
  1. All animals or plants of the same species or subspecies.

    a breed of tulip
    a breed of animal
  2. A race or lineage; offspring or issue.

  3. A group of people with shared characteristics.

    informal
    People who were taught classical Greek and Latin at school are a dying breed.
  4. Ellipsis of half-breed.

    abbreviation · alt-of · derogatory · ellipsis
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰreh₁-der. Proto-Indo-European *bʰroh₁tús Proto-Germanic *brōduz Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *brōdijaną Proto-West Germanic *brōdijan Old English brēdan Middle English breden English breed Inherited from Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan, from Proto-Germanic *brōdijaną (“to brood”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreh₁- (“warm”). Cognate with Scots brede, breid, Saterland Frisian briede, West Frisian briede, Low German bröden, Dutch broeden, German brüten.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.