brood
[brood]
- a number of young produced or hatched at one time; a family of offspring or young.
- a breed, species, group, or kind: The museum exhibited a brood of monumental sculptures.
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- to sit upon (eggs) to hatch, as a bird; incubate.
- (of a bird) to warm, protect, or cover (young) with the wings or body.
- to think or worry persistently or moodily about; ponder: He brooded the problem.
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- to sit upon eggs to be hatched, as a bird.
- to dwell on a subject or to meditate with morbid persistence (usually followed by over or on).
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- kept for breeding: a brood hen.
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- brood above/over, to cover, loom, or seem to fill the atmosphere or scene: The haunted house on the hill brooded above the village.
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Origin of brood
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comSynonym study
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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
offspring, daydream, grieve, meditate, sulk, mope, ruminate, fret, progeny, family, clutch, breed, young, litter, seed, hatch, posterity, flock, issue, descendantsExamples from the Web for brood
Contemporary Examples
The key is how much we can brood, and what is meant by brooding—is it to daydream, or is it to agonize over every detail?
An uncle and his family resided in another house and his aunt and her brood in a third.
A Young Chef Travels to Calabria, Italy, and Learns the Old Ways of CookingCurtis Stone
November 28, 2013
Which is a question that French nationalists continue to brood about.
The Atlantic explains one rough part of being a 17-year brood: developers often turn forests into cities in far less time.
This year's Brood II cicadas are currently appearing on the East Coast (although not quite with the drama we initially expected).
Historical Examples
Women were like she wolves for greed when they had a brood of whelps.
The Armourer's PrenticesCharlotte M. Yonge
She fussed around like any other old hen who had in charge a brood of ducks.
In a Steamer Chair and Other StoriesRobert Barr
It is well to be prepared for it, but it is ill to brood over a fancied future of evil.
Ranald Bannerman's BoyhoodGeorge MacDonald
And were you not, for your audacity, left to brood ten days and nights in gaol?
The Book of KhalidAmeen Rihani
Verville has sworn that there shall be one less of the Italian brood.
The Suitors of YvonneRaphael Sabatini
brood
- a number of young animals, esp birds, produced at one hatching
- all the offspring in one family: often used jokingly or contemptuously
- a group of a particular kind; breed
- (as modifier) kept for breedinga brood mare
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- (of a bird)
- to sit on or hatch (eggs)
- (tr)to cover (young birds) protectively with the wings
- (when intr , often foll by on, over or upon) to ponder morbidly or persistently
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Word Origin
Old English brōd; related to Middle High German bruot, Dutch broed; see breed
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for brood
n.
Old English brod "brood, fetus, hatchling," from Proto-Germanic *brod (cf. Middle Dutch broet, Old High German bruot, German Brut "brood"), literally "that which is hatched by heat," from *bro- "to warm, heat," from PIE *bhre- "burn, heat, incubate," from root *bhreue- "to boil, bubble, effervesce, burn" (see brew (v.)).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
brood
(brōōd)- litter
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.