brood

[ brood ]
See synonyms for: broodbroodedbrooderbrooding on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a number of young produced or hatched at one time; a family of offspring or young.

  2. a breed, species, group, or kind: The museum exhibited a brood of monumental sculptures.

verb (used with object)
  1. to sit upon (eggs) to hatch, as a bird; incubate.

  2. (of a bird) to warm, protect, or cover (young) with the wings or body.

  1. to think or worry persistently or moodily about; ponder: He brooded the problem.

verb (used without object)
  1. to sit upon eggs to be hatched, as a bird.

  2. to dwell on a subject or to meditate with morbid persistence (usually followed by over or on).

adjective
  1. kept for breeding: a brood hen.

Verb Phrases
  1. brood above / over to cover, loom, or seem to fill the atmosphere or scene: The haunted house on the hill brooded above the village.

Origin of brood

1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English brōd; cognate with Dutch broed, German Brut; see breed

synonym study For brood

1. Brood, litter refer to young creatures. Brood is especially applied to the young of fowls and birds hatched from eggs at one time and raised under their mother's care: a brood of young turkeys. Litter is applied to a group of young animals brought forth at a birth: a litter of kittens or pups.

Other words for brood

Other words from brood

  • broodless, adjective
  • un·brood·ed, adjective

Words that may be confused with brood

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use brood in a sentence

  • In those dim aisles and mighty halls brooded a Presence that he knew could soothe and comfort.

    The Wave | Algernon Blackwood
  • THE Lake at last—a sheet of shining metal brooded over by drooping trees.

    Summer | Edith Wharton
  • Long he sat, and the darkness fell over the moor, matching the darkness that brooded over his heart and mind.

    The Underworld | James C. Welsh
  • It was with him, therefore, that I proposed to my fellow-captive to try our long-brooded and cherished scheme of deliverance.

    Confessions of a Thug | Philip Meadows Taylor
  • There was sadness in it, and pain, and the gray wintry sky brooded of sorrows to come.

    The Underworld | James C. Welsh

British Dictionary definitions for brood

brood

/ (bruːd) /


noun
  1. a number of young animals, esp birds, produced at one hatching

  2. all the offspring in one family: often used jokingly or contemptuously

  1. a group of a particular kind; breed

  2. (as modifier) kept for breeding: a brood mare

verb
  1. (of a bird)

    • to sit on or hatch (eggs)

    • (tr) to cover (young birds) protectively with the wings

  2. (when intr , often foll by on, over or upon) to ponder morbidly or persistently

Origin of brood

1
Old English brōd; related to Middle High German bruot, Dutch broed; see breed

Derived forms of brood

  • brooding, noun, adjective
  • broodingly, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012