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
Related Words
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
- brooding noun
- broodingly adverb
- broodless adjective
- unbrooded adjective
Etymology
Origin of brood
First recorded before 1000; Middle English; Old English brōd; cognate with Dutch broed, German Brut; breed
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.
He was awkward, brooding and uneasy outside his eccentric family.
Robert Duvall was a distinguished and prolific screen actor who lent a brooding intensity and grizzled authority to seven decades of American film-making.
From BBC
“Heathcliff was brooding but she said, ‘What if he wasn’t brooding?’
From Los Angeles Times
On a surface level, I think Brontë created an archetype that has lived on — the brooding, possessive self-made man type.
From Los Angeles Times
The actor noted that the family had embraced an abundance of wildlife on the ranch, and added pigs, chickens, horses, dogs, and cats to their brood.
From MarketWatch
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.
