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Adjective: breeding  bree-ding
  1. Producing offspring or set aside especially for producing offspring
    "the breeding population"; "retained a few bulls for breeding purposes"
Noun: breeding  bree-ding
  1. Elegance by virtue of fineness of manner and expression
    "she conveys an aura of elegance and breeding";
    - genteelness, gentility
     
  2. The result of good upbringing (especially knowledge of correct social behaviour)
    "a woman of breeding and refinement";
    - education, training
     
  3. Helping someone grow up to be an accepted member of the community
    "they debated whether nature or breeding was more important";
    - bringing up, fostering, fosterage, nurture, raising, rearing, upbringing
     
  4. The production of animals or plants by inbreeding or hybridization
     
  5. The sexual activity of conceiving and bearing offspring
    - reproduction, procreation, facts of life
Verb: breed (bred)  breed
  1. Call forth
    - engender, spawn
     
  2. (animal husbandry) copulate with a female, used especially of horses
    - cover
     
  3. Cause to procreate (animals)
    "She breeds dogs"
     
  4. Have young (animals) or reproduce (organisms)
    "pandas rarely breed in captivity";
    - multiply

Derived forms: breedings

See also: fruitful

Type of: acculturation, cause, copulate, couple, create, do, elegance, elegancy [archaic], enculturation, engender, make, mate, multiply, pair, procreate, produce, production, reproduce, sex, sex activity, sexual activity, sexual practice, socialisation [Brit], socialization, upbringing

Encyclopedia: Breeding, Kentucky

Breed, Michael