Breed vs Sow - What's the difference?
breed | sow | Related terms |
To produce offspring sexually; to bear young.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= To give birth to; to be the native place of.
* Shakespeare
Of animals, to mate.
To keep animals and have them reproduce in a way that improves the next generation’s qualities.
To arrange the mating of specific animals.
To propagate or grow plants trying to give them certain qualities.
To take care of in infancy and through childhood; to bring up.
* Dryden
* Everett
To yield or result in.
* Milton
(obsolete) To be formed in the parent or dam; to be generated, or to grow, like young before birth.
To educate; to instruct; to form by education; to train; sometimes followed by up .
* Bishop Burnet
* John Locke
To produce or obtain by any natural process.
* John Locke
To have birth; to be produced or multiplied.
* Shakespeare
All animals or plants of the same species or subspecies.
A race or lineage.
(informal) A group of people with shared characteristics.
A female pig.
A channel that conducts molten metal to molds.
A mass of metal solidified in a mold.
* 1957 , H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry , p. 160:
(derogatory, slang) A contemptible, often fat woman.
A sowbug.
(military) A kind of covered shed, formerly used by besiegers in filling up and passing the ditch of a besieged place, sapping and mining the wall, etc.
To scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds).
(figurative) To spread abroad; to propagate.
* Addison
(figurative) To scatter over; to besprinkle.
* Sir M. Hale
* Milton
In transitive terms the difference between breed and sow
is that breed is to give birth to; to be the native place of while sow is to scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds).As verbs the difference between breed and sow
is that breed is to produce offspring sexually; to bear young while sow is to scatter, disperse, or plant (seeds).As nouns the difference between breed and sow
is that breed is all animals or plants of the same species or subspecies while sow is a female pig.breed
English
Alternative forms
* breede (archaic)Verb
David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
Wild Plants to the Rescue, volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
- a pond breeds''' fish; a northern country '''breeds stout men
- Yet every mother breeds not sons alike.
- to bring thee forth with pain, with care to breed
- born and bred on the verge of the wilderness
- Lest the place / And my quaint habits breed astonishment.
- No care was taken to breed him a Protestant.
- His farm may not remove his children too far from him, or the trade he breeds them up in.
- Children would breed their teeth with less danger.
- Heavens rain grace / On that which breeds between them.
Synonyms
* (take care of in infancy and through childhood) raise, bring up, rearDerived terms
* breeder * breeding * breed in the boneNoun
(en noun)- a breed of tulip
- a breed of animal
- People who were taught classical Greek and Latin at school are a dying breed .
Anagrams
* English irregular verbs ----sow
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) sowe, from (etyl) sugu, from (etyl) (ae)). See also swine .Noun
(en-noun)- In England, it was generally termed a 'sow' , if the weight was above 10 cwts., if below, it was termed a 'pig' from which the present term 'pig iron' is derived.
- (Craig)
Usage notes
The plural form swine is now obsolete in this sense.Synonyms
* (mass of metal solidified in a mold) ingot * (contemptible woman) bitch, cowDerived terms
* make a silk purse of a sow's earSee also
* boar * hog * pigEtymology 2
From (etyl) sowen, from (etyl) .Verb
- When I had sown the field, the day's work was over.
- As you sow , so shall you reap.
- And sow dissension in the hearts of brothers.
- The intellectual faculty is a goodly field, and it is the worst husbandry in the world to sow it with trifles.
- [He] sowed with stars the heaven.