[Pa. pple. of BREED v.]
† 1. Developed in the womb; hatched from the egg; brought forth. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 48. Bredde or hecchyd, of byrdys [1499 hetched], pullificatus.
1570. Levins, Manip., 48. Bredde, genitus, ortus.
2. Reared, brought up, (properly) trained.
1655. Gurnall, Chr. in Arm., vii. § 1 (1669), 500/1. Paul was a bred scholar.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 108, ¶ 3. Being bred to no Business and born to no estate.
1719. London & Wise, Compl. Gard., p. xxvii. The Trees or Plants to be there planted, ought to be handsome bred Plants.
1846. McCulloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 165. The sheep bred in the county.
1863. Fr. Kemble, Resid. Georgia, 124. Born and bred in America.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, I. 193. Bred in puritan and republican tradition.
b. Chiefly in comb.: a. with sb., as country-, court-, farm-, town-bred; b. with advs., as ill-, well-bred, of bad or good breeding.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 52. A town bred or country-bred similitude, it is worth nothing.
1760. Goldsm., Cit. W., xciii. Court-bred poets. Ibid. (1766), Vic. W., xi. A small stipend for a well-bred girl.
1845. Ford, Handbk. Spain, i. 29. No nation … is better bred or mannered than the lower classes of Spaniards.
1871. Blackie, Four Phases, i. 65. [This] would … be considered extremely ill-bred.
1884. Black, Jud. Shaks., xxviii. The … awkwardness of a farm-bred wench.
3. Of animals: Of good breed. So with reference to the comparative purity of the breed: thorough-bred, half-bred, three-parts-bred, etc.
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4677/4. Their Horses seem to have been bred Horses.
1787. ‘G. Gambado,’ Acad. Horsem. (1809), 20. Nothing now is to be seen but bred horses.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, iïi. 29. Thorough-bred horses in stalls.
¶ Bred and Born: see BREED v. 10.
