breed sb. (not pre-Eliz.; 2 now replaced by ‘brood’)
1.
race, strain
R2 II. i. 45
“This happy breed of
men,”
H8 II. ii. 4,
Cym. IV. ii. 25
“breed of
greatness!”
; family Mac. IV. iii.
108; kind, species
LLL. V. ii. 267
“the breed of wits so
wonder'd at,”
Ham. III. ii. 333 [327] “this courtesy is not of the
right breed.”
2.
offspring Sonn. xii. 14; fig.
Mer.V. I. iii. 135
“A breed of barren
metal.”
