Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Breed \Breed\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Bred}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Breeding}.] [OE. breden, AS. br[=e]dan to nourish, cherish,
   keep warm, from br[=o]d brood; akin to D. broeden to brood,
   OHG. bruoten, G. br["u]ten. See {Brood}.]
   1. To produce as offspring; to bring forth; to bear; to
      procreate; to generate; to beget; to hatch.

            Yet every mother breeds not sons alike. --Shak.

            If the sun breed maggots in a dead dog. --Shak.

   2. To take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth;
      to bring up; to nurse and foster.

            To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed.
                                                  --Dryden.

            Born and bred on the verge of the wilderness.
                                                  --Everett.

   3. To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train;
      -- sometimes followed by up.

            But no care was taken to breed him a Protestant.
                                                  --Bp. Burnet.

            His farm may not remove his children too far from
            him, or the trade he breeds them up in. --Locke.

   4. To engender; to cause; to occasion; to originate; to
      produce; as, to breed a storm; to breed disease.

            Lest the place And my quaint habits breed
            astonishment.                         --Milton.

   5. To give birth to; to be the native place of; as, a pond
      breeds fish; a northern country breeds stout men.

   6. To raise, as any kind of stock.

   7. To produce or obtain by any natural process. [Obs.]

            Children would breed their teeth with less danger.
                                                  --Locke.

   Syn: To engender; generate; beget; produce; hatch; originate;
        bring up; nourish; train; instruct.

Breed \Breed\, n.
   1. A race or variety of men or other animals (or of plants),
      perpetuating its special or distinctive characteristics by
      inheritance.

            Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed.
                                                  --Shak.

            Greyhounds of the best breed.         --Carpenter.

   2. Class; sort; kind; -- of men, things, or qualities.

            Are these the breed of wits so wondered at? --Shak.

            This courtesy is not of the right breed. --Shak.

   3. A number produced at once; a brood. [Obs.]

   Note: Breed is usually applied to domestic animals; species
         or variety to wild animals and to plants; and race to
         men.

Breed \Breed\, v. i.
   1. To bear and nourish young; to reproduce or multiply
      itself; to be pregnant.

            That they breed abundantly in the earth. --Gen.
                                                  viii. 17.

            The mother had never bred before.     --Carpenter.

            Ant. Is your gold and silver ewes and rams? Shy. I
            can not tell. I make it breed as fast. --Shak.

   2. To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to
      grow, as young before birth.

   3. To have birth; to be produced or multiplied.

            Heavens rain grace On that which breeds between
            them.                                 --Shak.

   4. To raise a breed; to get progeny.

            The kind of animal which you wish to breed from.
                                                  --Gardner.

   {To breed in and in}, to breed from animals of the same stock
      that are closely related.

Source : WordNet®

breed
     n 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}]
     v 1: call forth [syn: {engender}, {spawn}]
     2: copulate with a female, used especially of horses; "The
        horse covers the mare" [syn: {cover}]
     3: of plants or animals; "She breeds dogs"
     4: have young (animals); "pandas rarely breed in captivity"
        [syn: {multiply}]
     [also: {bred}]