Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Breeding

Breed′ing (brēd′ĭng), n. 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.

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.

Syn. — Education; instruction; nurture; training; manners. See Education.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.