Part 809

{ Breech" pin` (&?;), Breech" screw` } (&?;). A strong iron or steel plug screwed into the breech of a musket or other firearm, to close the bottom of the bore.

Breech" sight` (&?;). A device attached to the breech of a firearm, to guide the eye, in conjunction with the front sight, in taking aim.

Breed (&?;), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bred (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Breeding.] [OE. breden, AS. brdan to nourish, cherish, keep warm, from brd brood; akin to D. broeden to brood, OHG. bruoten, G. brüten. See Brood.] 1. To produce as offspring; to bring forth; to bear; to procreate; to generate; to beget; to hatch.

Yet every mother breeds not sons alike. Shak.

If the sun breed maggots in a dead dog. Shak.

2. To take care of in infancy, and through the age of youth; to bring up; to nurse and foster.

To bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed. Dryden.

Born and bred on the verge of the wilderness. Everett.

3. To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train; -- sometimes followed by up.

But no care was taken to breed him a Protestant. Bp. Burnet.

His farm may not remove his children too far from him, or the trade he breeds them up in. Locke.

4. To engender; to cause; to occasion; to originate; to produce; as, to breed a storm; to breed disease.

Lest the place And my quaint habits breed astonishment. Milton.

5. To give birth to; to be the native place of; as, a pond breeds fish; a northern country breeds stout men.

6. To raise, as any kind of stock.

7. To produce or obtain by any natural process. [Obs.]

Children would breed their teeth with less danger. Locke.

Syn. -- To engender; generate; beget; produce; hatch; originate; bring up; nourish; train; instruct.

Breed, v. i. 1. To bear and nourish young; to reproduce or multiply itself; to be pregnant.

That they breed abundantly in the earth. Gen. viii. 17.

The mother had never bred before. Carpenter.

Ant. Is your gold and silver ewes and rams? Shy. I can not tell. I make it breed as fast. Shak.

2. To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, as young before birth.

3. To have birth; to be produced or multiplied.

Heavens rain grace On that which breeds between them. Shak.

4. To raise a breed; to get progeny.

The kind of animal which you wish to breed from. Gardner.

To breed in and in, to breed from animals of the same stock that are closely related.