What does "breed" mean in a text.
Hi there,

Studying english with a textbook, I encountered following text.

The British gentleman is a dying breed.

I think breed means producing young, but the textbook's translation said "The British gentleman is going away".
Why a dying breed means going away?

If you know the reason, could you please tell me ?

Thanks

Question

What does "breed" mean in a text.
Hi there,

Studying english with a textbook, I encountered following text.

The British gentleman is  a dying breed.

I think breed means producing young, but the textbook's translation said "The British gentleman is going away".
Why a dying breed  means going away?

If you know the reason, could you please tell me ?

Thanks

Answer

I think that this proves Phil's point about the importance of grammar. Look at the structure of the sentence: "xx is a dying breed". It is clear from the sentence that the word "breed" is a NOUN, not a verb. It's therefore not surprising that you were confused by a dictionary definition of the verb "breed".

Had you considered the structure of the sentence more carefully before grabbing your dictionary, you would have found out that the noun "breed" means "species". You might even have found the common  idiomatic phrase "a dying breed", which means a type of person that is becoming steadily rarer and may soon disappear entirely.

Answer

In this context the word 'breed' could be the same as 'species'

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