FluentPlex

breed

/ˈbɹiːd/ verb B1
  1. To produce offspring sexually; to bear young.
  2. To give birth to; to be the native place of. (transitive) · A pond breeds fish.· A northern country breeds stout men.
  3. To mate.
  4. To keep (animals) and have (them) reproduce in a way that improves the next generation's qualities. (transitive)
  5. To arrange the mating of (specific animals). (transitive) · She wanted to breed her cow to the neighbor's registered bull.
  6. To propagate or grow (plants) in an effort to give (them) certain qualities. · He tries to breed blue roses.
  7. To take care of in infancy and through childhood; to bring up. · born and bred
  8. To yield or result in. · disaster breeds famine· familiarity breeds contempt

He/she/it breeds · Past bred · Past participle bred · -ing form breeding

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Verb forms

Base form
breed
He/she/it
breeds
Past
bred
Past participle
bred
-ing form
breeding

An irregular verb: learn its past and past participle by heart.

From the library

A Fox seeing him said: “A fine Lion you are, to be frightened of a Mouse.” “’Tis not the Mouse I fear,” said the Lion; “I resent his familiarity and ill-breeding.”
Three Hundred Aesop's Fables, p. 16 · B2
so much ease, with such perfect good breeding!”
Pride and Prejudice, p. 13 · B2
That was the Avonlea type of well-bred little girl.
Anne of Green Gables, p. 20 · C1
Morrel expected Villefort would be dejected; he found him as he had found him six weeks before, calm, firm, and full of that glacial politeness, that most insurmountable barrier which separates the well-bred from the vulgar man.
The Count of Monte Cristo, p. 120 · C1

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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.