Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds hatched at one time and cared for together.
  • noun The children in one family.
  • intransitive verb To focus the attention on a subject persistently and moodily; worry.
  • intransitive verb To be depressed.
  • intransitive verb To sit on or hatch eggs.
  • intransitive verb To protect developing eggs or young.
  • intransitive verb To hover envelopingly; hang.
  • intransitive verb To think about (something) persistently or moodily.
  • intransitive verb To sit on or hatch (eggs).
  • intransitive verb To protect (developing eggs or young).
  • adjective Kept for breeding.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • An obsolete form of broad.
  • noun Oyster spat in the second year of development.
  • To sit persistently on eggs, covering and warming them with the body and wings, for the purpose of hatching them: said of birds.
  • To rest fixedly like a brooding bird.
  • To meditate long and anxiously; remain a long time in anxiety or solicitous thought; have the mind dwelling persistently on a subject: with on or over.
  • To sit over, cover, and cherish: as, a hen broods her chicks; hence, to nourish.
  • To cherish with care.
  • To ponder over; plan or mature with care: as, “to brood war,”
  • To incubate: as, brooded eggs.
  • noun Offspring; progeny.
  • noun A hatch; the young birds hatched in one nest, or those placed together in the care of one hen, or in an artificial brooder: as, a brood of chickens or of ducks.
  • noun That which is bred; species generated; that which is produced; hence, figuratively, sort or kind.
  • noun In mining, any heterogeneous mixture with tin or copper ore, as mundic or black-jack.
  • noun A north of Scotland name for salmon-fry.
  • noun Synonyms Covey, etc. See flock.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Sitting or inclined to sit on eggs.
  • adjective Kept for breeding from; ; having young.
  • transitive verb To sit over, cover, and cherish.
  • transitive verb rare To cherish with care.
  • transitive verb To think anxiously or moodily upon.
  • intransitive verb To sit on and cover eggs, as a fowl, for the purpose of warming them and hatching the young; or to sit over and cover young, as a hen her chickens, in order to warm and protect them; hence, to sit quietly, as if brooding.
  • intransitive verb To have the mind dwell continuously or moodily on a subject; to think long and anxiously; to be in a state of gloomy, serious thought; -- usually followed by over or on.
  • noun The young birds hatched at one time; a hatch.
  • noun The young from the same dam, whether produced at the same time or not; young children of the same mother, especially if nearly of the same age; offspring; progeny.
  • noun That which is bred or produced; breed; species.
  • noun (Mining) Heavy waste in tin and copper ores.
  • noun [Poetic] to ponder.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time by the same mother.
  • noun uncountable The young of any egg-laying creature, especially if produced at the same time.
  • noun The eggs and larvae of social insects such as bees, ants and some wasps, especially when gathered together in special brood chambers or combs within the colony.
  • noun The children in one family.
  • verb transitive To keep an egg warm to make it hatch.
  • verb transitive To protect.
  • verb intransitive To dwell upon moodily and at length.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb hang over, as of something threatening, dark, or menacing
  • verb think moodily or anxiously about something

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English brōd; see bhreu- in Indo-European roots.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word brood.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.