breeding Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression
    gentility; genteelness.
  2. noun the result of good upbringing (especially knowledge of correct social behavior)
    training; education.
    • a woman of breeding and refinement
  3. noun helping someone grow up to be an accepted member of the community
    fostering; upbringing; bringing up; rearing; nurture; fosterage; raising.
    • they debated whether nature or nurture was more important
  4. noun the production of animals or plants by inbreeding or hybridization
  5. noun the sexual activity of conceiving and bearing offspring
    procreation; reproduction; facts of life.
  6. verb call forth
    spawn; breed; engender.
  7. verb copulate with a female, used especially of horses
    breed; cover.
    • The horse covers the mare
  8. verb cause to procreate (animals)
    breed.
    • She breeds dogs
  9. verb have young (animals) or reproduce (organisms)
    multiply; breed.
    • pandas rarely breed in captivity
    • These bacteria reproduce
  10. adjective satellite producing offspring or set aside especially for producing offspring
    • the breeding population
    • retained a few bulls for breeding purposes

WordNet


Breed"ing noun
Definitions
  1. The act or process of generating or bearing.
  2. The raising or improving of any kind of domestic animals; as, farmers should pay attention to breeding.
  3. Nurture; education; formation of manners.
    She had her breeding at my father's charge. Shak.
  4. Deportment or behavior in the external offices and decorums of social life; manners; knowledge of, or training in, the ceremonies, or polite observances of society.
    Delicacy of breeding, or that polite deference and respect which civility obliges us either to express or counterfeit towards the persons with whom we converse. Hume.
  5. Descent; pedigree; extraction. Obs.
    Honest gentlemen, I know not your breeding. Shak.
    Syn. -- Education; instruction; nurture; training; manners. See Education.

Webster 1913