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considered with respect to their rank or character; extraction; birth; as, a man of noble parentage. "Wilt thou deny thy parentage" Shak. Though men esteem thee low of parentage. Milton.

The establishment or ascertaining of parentage; the assignment of a child, as a bastard, to its father; filiation.

Born of low parentage.

. Shak. Close breeding, In and in breeding, breeding from a male and female from the same parentage. -- Cross breeding, breeding from a male and female of different lineage. -- Good breeding, politeness; genteel deportment.

ed at the same breast, or brought up by the same nurse as another, but is not of the same parentage. -- Foster dam, one who takes the place of a mother; a nurse. Dryden. -- Foster earth, earth by which a plant is nourished, though not its native soil. J. Philips. -- Foster father, a man who takes the place of a fath…

Standing in the second or some more remote degree of parentage or descent; -- generalIy used in composition; as, grandfather, grandson, grandchild, etc. What cause Mov'd our grand parents, in that happy state, Favor'd of Heaven so highly, to fall off From their Creator. Milton. Grand action, a pianoforte action, used i…

Applied to breeding from a male and female of the same parentage. See under Breeding.

rom a common progenitor; progeny; race; descending line of offspring or ascending line of parentage. Both the lineage and the certain sire From which I sprung, from me are hidden yet. Spenser.

Destitute of distinction or eminence; common; low; vulgar; humble. "Of mean parentage." Sir P. Sidney. The mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself. Is. ii. 9.

A babe or young child of Indian parentage in North America.

Kinship; parentage. [Obs.] Chaucer.

to give the particulars of; to enumerate or specify in detail. He not only boasts of his parentage as an Israelite, but particularizes his descent from Benjamin. Atterbury.

Derivation or descent from a father; male parentage; as, the paternity of a child.