brood

American  

[brood] / brud /

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

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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 British  

/ 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

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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

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

Its character is somber and brooding, partly because of its materials—precast concrete, finely sandblasted to suggest dark gray stone—and partly because of the deep shadows they cast.

From The Wall Street Journal

O’Neill resolves the triangular conflict with a combination of religious fervor, metaphoric brooding and scabrous humor.

From Los Angeles Times

Manderley is the Cornwall estate of Maxim de Winter, Rebecca’s brooding widower.

From The Wall Street Journal

"We extracted the smell from the signaling pupae and applied it to healthy brood," Cremer says.

From Science Daily

Caught in the grip of challenging sociopolitical backdrops, his magnetic and brooding men — whether bold authority figures, conflicted everyday guys, notorious outlaws or those in positions of power — represent an affront to the status quo.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

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