criar

The core verb for raising children or animals — feeding, nurturing, and bringing them up — and by extension, for breeding livestock or growing certain crops.

• Criaron a sus hijos en el campo. — They raised their children in the countryside.
• La granja se dedica a criar gallinas. — The farm raises chickens.
• Fue criado por sus abuelos. — He was raised by his grandparents.

Don't confuse criar (to raise/rear) with crear (to create) — they're one letter apart and easy to mix up, but a child is criado, not creado.

Often confused with crear.

• expression Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos — Well-known Spanish proverb warning that raising someone with too much indulgence, or trusting the wrong person, can come back to hurt you — literally "raise ravens and they'll peck your eyes out."
• film Cría cuervos — 1976 film directed by Carlos Saura, one of the landmark works of Spanish cinema, whose title is drawn directly from this proverb; it follows a young girl in a middle-class family in the final years of Francoism.