breeding

Definitions

1. 1.The raising or improving of any kind of domestic animals; as, farmers should pay attention to breeding.
2. 2.Nurture; education; formation of manners. She had her breeding at my father's charge. Shak.
3. 3.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.
4. 4.Descent; pedigree; extraction. [Obs.] Honest gentlemen, I know not your breeding. Shak. Close breeding, In and in breeding, breeding from a male and female from the same parentage. -- Cross breeding, breeding from a male and female of different lineage. -- Good breeding, politeness; genteel deportment. See Education.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

Synonyms

Related questions

• What does "breeding" mean?

Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is breeding.

• What is the raising or improving of any kind of domestic animals; as, farmers should pay attention to breeding called?
• What is nurture; education; formation of manners. She had her breeding at my father's charge. Shak called?