half-breed
(ˈhɑːfbriːd)
[See breed n., and cf. half-caste.]
† 1. A mixed breed or race, sprung from parents of two races. Obs.
| 1775 Romans Hist. Florida 82 Before the English traders came among them, there were scarcely any half breed, but now they abound among the younger sort. 1858 C. L. Flint Milch Cows & Dairy Farming (1860) ii. 69 Qualities which are, in a measure, artificial..change not only with the breed of one species, but with the different individuals of the same breed, of the same half-breed, and often of the same family. |
2. a. One who is sprung from parents or ancestors of different races; orig. and esp., in U.S., applied to the offspring of whites or Negroes and American Indians.
| 1760 Newport (R.I.) Mercury 22 Apr. 2/1 On the 18th a Half-Breed, who is a Leader and Head Warrior..came..to Fort Augusta. 1791 W. Bartram Carolina 440 His mother being a Chactaw slave, and his father a half breed, betwixt a Creek and white man. 1807 Pike Sources Mississ. iii. App. (1810) 33 A few civilized Indians and half breeds. 1860 Froude Hist. Eng. V. 415 The laws which interfered with the marriages of English and Irish, and forbade the inheritance of half-breeds, were relaxed or abolished. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1846 Quincy (Ill.) Whig 27 Jan. 2/4 All the Jacks in the county, consisting of T. H. Owen, John Harper, Backenstos, Bedell, and a few ‘half breeds’. 1883 ‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi xliv. 402 This reminds me that a remark of a very peculiar nature was made here in my neighbourhood (in the North) a few days ago: ‘He hadn't ought to have went.’ How is that? Isn't that a good deal of a triumph? One knows the orders combined in this half-breed's architecture without inquiring: one parent Northern, the other Southern. 1952 A. Stevenson Speeches (1953) 179 I'm a half-breed myself. My father was from an old, staunch Democratic family, and he was a Presbyterian. My mother was from an equally old and staunch Republican family and she was a Unitarian. |
3. In U.S. politics, a name applied in derision to certain Republicans of New York who in 1881 wavered in their party allegiance.
| 1881 Daily News 7 Dec. 4/8 A Cabinet of ‘Half-breeds’, as the party of Civil Service reform are called. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. II. ii. xlvi. 203 The ‘Stalwart’ and ‘Half-breed’ sections of the Republican party in the same State..were mere factions..without distinctive principles. |
4. attrib. (from 1).
| a 1762 S. Niles Wars in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. (1861) 4th Ser. V. ii. 538 One Molton, a half-breed fellow,..seized the fellow that wounded Mr. Atkins. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. II. 12 Half-breed boys were paddling about in their little canoes. 1859 Thackeray Virgin. li, A half-breed woman in the fort. |