breed, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

breed v.

1. (W.I.) to impregnate; to be pregnant.

[1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 121: Dis be de way you breed me in; / So God or d—l take me].
[1832		Satirist (London) 26 Aug. 278/4: What does the Duchess want to make her Grace-full? —Breeding].
1979		‘Trip to Jam Down’ in P. Ashton et al. Our Lives (1982) 50: A lot of girls in Jamaica have babies early, from the age of thirteen upwards. A few boys asked me [...] if they could ‘breed’ me so that they could be the father of my baby.
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 6: Breed 1. to be pregnant: u. de gal a breed/she’s pregnant.

2. (US campus) to have sex.

1997–2000

College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Breed (verb) To have sex [...] (primarily used by athletes).

SE in slang uses

In phrases

breed a black eye (for oneself) (v.)

(US) to stir up trouble for oneself.

1967

in DARE I 376/2: Breeding a black eye — you’re getting on my nerves.

breed a scab (on one’s nose) (v.) [someone is likely to punch your nose]

(US) to stir up trouble for oneself.

1852		United Service Jrnl (NYC) 6 Nov. 167/2: The Spanish authorities [...] are, seeimingly ‘trying very hard to breed a scab on their nose,’ and they are in a fair way of succeeding.
1870		N.O. Republican (LA) 6 Dec. 4/2: Baton Rouge, to use a common and somewhat vulgar phrase, is ‘breeding a scab upon her nose’.
1880		Lewiston Teller (ID) 27 Feb. 1/3: We would most respectfully advise this man to bask in the sunshine and quietude, lest he should breed a scab on his nose by again arousing his adversary.
1895		Athena Press (OR) 11 Oct. 2/3: When he is well loaded with bug juice he [...] tries to find trouble and breed a scab on his nose.
1904		Eve. Bulletin (Honolulu, HI) 27 Dec. 8/1: [advert] Don’t breed a scab on your nose by tracking mud and dirt into your wife’s clean parlor.
[1907		J. London Road 135: At the same time, glaring at us malevolently, he said: — ‘You’ve got scabs on your nose. You’ve got scabs on your nose. You’ve got scabs on your nose. See!’].
1912		Day Book (Chicago) 23 Nov. 4/1: The next practical joker who kids Chief of Police McWeeny about New York gunmen is liable to breed a scabn upon one’s nose.
1917		Eve. Times-Republican (Marshaltown, IA) 27 Sept. 6/3: The farmers of South Dakota who are holding their wheat as a proest against the price fixed by the government are breeding a scab on the nose of all agriculture.
1941		P.G. Brewster ‘More Indiana Sayings’ in AS XVI:1 21: Breeding a scab. Preparing to make serious trouble for oneself. ‘You’re breeding a scab when you talk to him like that.’.
1967, 1981		in DARE.
2000		Amer. Heritage Dict. (4th edn) 173: breed a scab (or scabs) on (one’s) nose Regional To stir up trouble for oneself.