half-bred

English

Alternative forms

half bred

Etymology

From half- +‎ bred.

Adjective

half-bred (not comparable)

not well-bred; imperfectly trained or ill-acquainted to good manners.
- 1694 November 7 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), Francis Atterbury, “A Scorner Incapable of True Wisdom. A Sermon Preach’d before the Queen at White-hall. October 28. 1694.”, in Fourteen Sermons Preach’d on Several Occasions. […], London: […] E. P. [Edmund Parker?] for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1708, →OCLC, page 154:
  He that is but Half a Philoſopher, is in danger of being an Atheiſt; an Half-Phyſician is apt to turn Empiric; an Half-Bred man is conceited in his Addreſs, and troubleſome in his Converſation.
- 1925, Robert Ervin Howard, John L. Sullivan:
  "Set out eh whiskey. Jimmy, ye bum!
  Belly the bar, ye half bred scum!
(obsolete, of animals) Half-blooded.
- 1889 April, John Wesley Dafoe, “Domestication of the Buffalo”, in Popular Science Monthly:
  The progeny were tame, worked in yoke, exceeded the ox in strength, and retained the wallowing habit. All the half-bred heifers were fertile, but the half-bred bulls were not. Colonel George C. Thompson, of Shawnee Springs, Ky., concurrently with Mr. Wickliffe's experiment, domesticated a buffalo bull and three buffalo cows; they were thoroughly docile, hardy, and long-lived.
(of humans, often derogatory) half-breed (of mixed ethnicity)
- 1901, John Conroy Hutcheson, The Ghost Ship:
  “Captain Alphonse was delighted at this, for we had only half a dozen good seamen on board, the rest of the hands being a lot of half-bred mulattoes and niggers—some of the scourings of South America whom he had picked up at La Guayra, most of whom knew how to handle a cutlass better than a rope—so the proposed addition to the strength of our ship’s company was a very acceptable one, particularly as the ‘Marquis’ pointed out two of his companions as being expert sailors and qualified pilots and navigators.”
- 1907, John Henry Patterson, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, Chapter 23:
  On hearing the usual salutation, however, I turned round and saw a lean and withered half-bred Masai, clothed in a very inadequate piece of wildebeeste hide which was merely slipped under the left arm and looped up in a knot over the right shoulder. He stood for a moment with the right hand held out on a level with his shoulder, the fingers extended and the palm turned towards me -- all indicating that he came on a friendly visit

Coordinate terms

full-bred

Noun

half-bred (plural half-breds)

A half-blooded animal.
- 1869, Sheep: Their Breeds, Management, and Diseases, page 328:
  The Leicesters and half-breds are purchased by farmers who keep no breeding stock: they are well turniped during the winter, and clipped and fattened in the following season.
A half-breed

References

“half-bred”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.