brood
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
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to sit upon (eggs) to hatch, as a bird; incubate.
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(of a bird) to warm, protect, or cover (young) with the wings or body.
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to think or worry persistently or moodily about; ponder.
He brooded the problem.
verb (used without object)
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to sit upon eggs to be hatched, as a bird.
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to dwell on a subject or to meditate with morbid persistence (usually followed by over oron ).
adjective
verb phrase
noun
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a number of young animals, esp birds, produced at one hatching
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all the offspring in one family: often used jokingly or contemptuously
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a group of a particular kind; breed
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(as modifier) kept for breeding
a brood mare
verb
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to sit on or hatch (eggs)
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(tr) to cover (young birds) protectively with the wings
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to ponder morbidly or persistently
Synonym Usage
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 Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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broodsimple
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broodssimple
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have broodedperfect
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has broodedperfect
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am broodingprogressive
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are broodingprogressive
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is broodingprogressive
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have been broodingperfect progressive
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has been broodingperfect progressive
Past
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broodedsimple
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had broodedperfect
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was broodingprogressive
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were broodingprogressive
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had been broodingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of brood
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English brōd; cognate with Dutch broed, German Brut; see breed
Explanation
A brood is a group of young born at the same time — like a brood of chicks — but your parents might use the word for you and your siblings: "We're taking the whole brood to the movies tonight." Brood is also what a chicken does when she sits on her eggs to hatch them. You can also brood, when you worry and sulk and dwell on something obsessively — maybe as tedious as sitting on eggs, but no chicks when you're done. Things like clouds or silence can also brood, hanging over something ominously, as a storm that broods over the sea, sending fishermen scurrying for safety.
Vocabulary lists containing brood
Animal Farm
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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Metaphors from Top AP English Exam Novels
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
If you have your first at 27, or 35, there are simply fewer reproductive years to add to your brood.
From Slate ● Jul. 28, 2026
"I have ringed quite a few groups of five and four owlets this year. But this is the first brood of six I have found," he added.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Mammals rarely co-parent, as opposed to, say, fish—seahorse dads develop brood pouches during their pregnancies, boosted by the hormone prolactin—but humans are an exception.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Then there was his promise to build her a dance studio on their massive estate; he turned it into a schoolhouse for their growing brood of children.
From Salon ● Apr. 8, 2026
A caterpillar becomes a butterfly, a bird raises its brood in the forest, and a greenheart tree will only grow from a greenheart seed.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
In those cases, fledging mass can drop by up to 27%, particularly for broods that hatch later in the breeding season.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 12, 2026
The actor noted that the family had embraced an abundance of wildlife on the ranch, including adding multiple animals to their broods, from pigs and chickens to horses, dogs, and cats.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 22, 2026
A writer broods on her reading habit: What is it about, what am I doing it for, what is it doing for me?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2024
The last time these particular broods emerged in the same year was two centuries ago in 1803.
From BBC ● May 22, 2024
A moody man, often competent, bad-tempered, wealthy, aspires to a place in Richmond society, frets and broods and fights with superiors.
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
He brooded over his verses, revising them for years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
He brooded over the dwindling supplies of clean water and that too many people were competing for too little of it.
From Salon ● Nov. 14, 2024
At the time, the face of the Lakers was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a moody soul who brooded a hundred times for every forced smile.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2022
He narrates his reporting, mumbling inanities like “A Sabbath silence brooded over the mire.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2022
Dark and deep as the mud of the Nile, Set brooded lumpily through a mist of sandalwood incense—ninety-nine cents at Schmitt’s—over all kinds of mystic ceremonies, weird rites and wicked plots.
From "The Egypt Game" by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
And of course the dipping chocolate, thick and hot, not terribly sweet, but brooding and smoky.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2026
The answer will almost single-handedly determine whether France can live up to its billing as a World Cup favorite or crash out in a drama of brooding resentment worthy of a Palme d’Or.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
It is a long time sitting and thinking and brooding.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
"Call me queen, though I'm not royal," declares Essyla on Belgium's brooding pop banger, Dancing On the Ice.
From BBC ● May 8, 2026
I consoled myself that I had three more days to think about it, brooding in my tent like Napoleon.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
