English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From thorough +‎ breed.

Noun edit

thoroughbreed (plural thoroughbreeds)

  1. A breed of unadulterated or pure lineage.
    • 1844, The Farmer's Magazine, page 321:
      No particular breed of cattle can be said to exist in this district: milk being the main object of the farmer, he does not consider any thoroughbreed particularly advantageous for that purpose; []
    • 1868, Annual Report of the Secretary - Volume 15, Part 1867, page 159:
      SIR:—I have, at this moment, received from Dr. Eben Wight, the account of the stock of cattle known, in this vicinity, as the Jamestown. It is a cross between two thoroughbreeds — the Suffolk (no horned) on the part of the female, and the Jersey on the part of the male.
    • 1886, American Pomological Society, Proceedings, volume 20, page 96:
      It is only through the practice of the principles of evolution that a thorough-breed can be obtained. Every species is one of nature's thorough-breeds.
    • 1899, Bulletin - Texas Agricultural Experiment Station:
      [] that all the progeny would have large berries and large clusters, and thus far [form?] a purebreed or thoroughbreed, of the “in and in bred” type would be secured.
    • 1903, The Southern Planter, volume 64, page 457:
      Ellerslie is the most noted of modern Virginia thoroughbreed breeding establishments, and Eon, who was bred there, is one of the grandest looking thoroughbred stallions ever stripped.
  2. Alternative form of thoroughbred
    • 2013, Ian Talbot, Khizr Tiwana, the Punjab Unionist Party and the Partition of India:
      He also entered his own horses for the Lahore meetings, although the thoroughbreeds were sold off to trainers who competed in the more prestigious Bombay and Calcutta races.