brood

[brood]

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.

   Synonyms: strain, stock, line

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.

3. 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 oron ).

adjective

1. kept for breeding.

   a brood hen.

verb phrase

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.

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

3. a group of a particular kind; breed

4. (as modifier) kept for breeding

   a brood mare

verb

1. 1. to sit on or hatch (eggs)

   2. (tr) to cover (young birds) protectively with the wings

2. to ponder morbidly or persistently

Other Word Forms

• broodless adjective
• unbrooded adjective
• brooding noun
• broodingly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of brood¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of brood¹

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

Synonym Study

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.

Example Sentences

While Mescal’s no stranger to playing the put-upon father in his relatively brief yet prolific career, his brooding verges on laughable.

Read more on Salon

Like many butterfly species, the Marsh Fritillary is univoltine, meaning it produces just a single brood of offspring in its year-long life cycle.

Read more on BBC

Before listing the home, Dreyer had previously hinted at plans to move out of the Manhattan condo, admitting that the space was no longer a suitable fit for their brood.

Read more on MarketWatch

The result was a steady shift in the music-rich island from joyous ska and soulful rock-steady to reggae, a more brooding genre that addressed social and personal issues.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Miss Mortimer could not stop marveling at their navigational skills—“Who knew the sky even had a scent?” she exclaimed—but Penelope was still brooding about the poultice.

Read more on Literature

Related Words

• daydream 
• fret 
• grieve 
• meditate 
• mope 
• ruminate 
• sulk