[f. BREED v.: the act of breeding; hence, the progeny or race in which this results.]
† 1. BREEDING, generation, birth; parentage, extraction; natal or racial origin. Of breed: of breeding age. Obs.
a. 1600[?]. Merch. & Son, 34, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 134. Ther was not oon man in all thys londe, that bare a bettyr brede.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 466. Let them be young also, and of breed, Nam melior est ea ætas, quam sequitur spes, quam ea quam sequitur mors.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. iv. 8. Fish, and other liuing Creatures doe differ and varie in … peculiar attributes according to their places of Breede.
1632. G. Herbert, Temple, Providence, xxviii. Nothing useth fire, But man alone, to show his heavenly breed.
2. Race, lineage, stock, family; strain; a line of descendants from a particular parentage, and distinguished by particular hereditary qualities. (Abstract and concrete.)
a. of animals.
1553. Eden, Treat. New Ind. (Arb.), 22. Elephantes, of greater stature, and a better broede.
1611. Bible, Deut. xxxii. 14. Rammes of the breed of Bashan.
1653. Walton, Angler, i. 4. To destroy the very breed of those base Otters.
1722. Lond. Gaz., No. 6046/4. A dark brown Mare … betwixt Cart and Saddle Breed.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. vii. Two dogs of black Saint Hubert’s breed.
1814. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., 258. It is necessary from time to time to change, and as it were to cross the breed.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 312. Many breeds, now extinct or rare, both of quadrupeds and birds.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., I. (1873), 15. The diversity of the breeds is something astonishing.
b. of men, etc.: now often contemptuous.
1596. Spenser, Prothal., 66. They did not seeme To be begot of any earthly seede, But rather angels, or of angels breede.
c. 1610. Rowlands, Terrible Batt., 41. His wife is of a proud and dainty breed.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 52, ¶ 3. To mend the Breed and rectify the Physiognomy of the Family on both Sides.
1770. Gray, Corr. (1843), 102. I never saw such a boy; our breed is not made on this model.
1843. Macaulay, Lake Regillus, xiii. Titus, the youngest Tarquin, Too good for such a breed. Ibid. (1855), Hist. Eng., III. 368. Warriors of a different breed.
c. gen. A kind, a species, a set.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 266. Are these the breed of wits so wondered at?
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 73. That measure of rest, and new breed of quickners that have befallen the body in the night.
† d. Of plants: A race. Obs.
1687. A. Lovell, trans. Bergerac’s Com. Hist., I. 153. Now the Breed of that Fruit is lost in your World.
† 3. Offspring; esp. The young brought forth at the same time viewed collectively; a family, litter. Obs. (or dial.); now replaced by BROOD. Also fig.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 1164. The young brede of bees.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. iii. 135. Lend it not As to thy friends, for when did friendship take A breede of barraine mettall of his friend? Ibid. (c. 1600), Sonn., xii. And nothing ’gainst Time’s scythe can make defence Save breed, to brave him when he takes thee hence.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 225. Thy Care must now proceed To teeming Females; and the promis’d Breed.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol. (1817), 147. The hen … is frightened when her supposititious breed of ducklings take the water.
1863. Atkinson, Danby Provinc., Breed, a brood, a litter of young ones.
† b. At a breed: at a birth. Obs.
1681. Grew, Musæum, 40 (J.). She lays them in the sand, where they lie till they are hatch’d. Sometimes above a hundred at a breed.
† c. Applied to single progeny of offspring; young one, child, bairn. Obs.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., I. ii. 4. Cybell [had] brought to light Her second breede, a smiling boy. Ibid., X. lv. 253. When Junos Breed on farther bankes his passenger had set.
† d. transf. Those bred in (a place): brood.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1704), 75. The Sea—so render’d more salutary for the maintenance of its Breed.
4. Comb. † breed-goose, -mother, -ram, a goose, etc. for breeding; † breed-reserved a., reserved for breeding. See also HALF-BREED.
1465. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 296. A gander, iiij. bredegese, and v. goslynges.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., V. iii. 11. The breed-reserued creatures saued in the floting Arke.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, I. 127. To give ten pound or more for a Breed-ram.
1668. Markham, Way to Wealth, vi. 49. No good House-wife will breed of a young, but of an old breed-mother.
