brood

[ brood ]

/ brud /

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See synonyms for: brood / brooded / brooder / brooding on Thesaurus.com

noun

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.

verb (used with object)

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.

verb (used without object)

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).

adjective

kept for breeding: a brood hen.

Verb Phrases

brood above / over to cover, loom, or seem to fill the atmosphere or scene: The haunted house on the hill brooded above the village.

OTHER WORDS FOR brood

2 line, stock, strain.

See synonyms for brood on Thesaurus.com

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Origin of brood

before 1000; Middle English; Old English brōd; cognate with Dutch broed,German Brut.See breed

synonym study for brood

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.

OTHER WORDS FROM brood

broodless, adjectiveun·brood·ed, adjective

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH brood

brewed, brood

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use brood in a sentence

As a purplish-red sun set, I sat brooding over my dataset on rat brains.
An Existential Crisis in Neuroscience - Issue 94: Evolving|Grigori Guitchounts|December 30, 2020|Nautilus
The scientists videotaped each brood for two consecutive days and nights to understand how the owlets interacted and attached a tiny microphone backpack to each chick to help identify individual calls.
Barn owlets share food with their younger siblings in exchange for grooming|Pratik Pawar|June 16, 2020|Science News
Bradley was a man who worried deeply and brooded over the lives lost among his commands.
Blood in the Sand: When James Jones Wrote a Grunt’s View of D-Day|James Jones|November 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The more I brooded about these and other Level D options, the more my confidence ebbed.
A Mathematically Impossible Novel: Manil Suri Explains “The City of Devi”|Manil Suri|March 15, 2013|DAILY BEAST

Dr. Johnson, left alone for long hours of the day, brooded on his own infirmities.
Samuel Johnson Pens an Erotic Love Letter|Ian McIntyre|December 26, 2008|DAILY BEAST
In those dim aisles and mighty halls brooded a Presence that he knew could soothe and comfort.
The Wave|Algernon Blackwood
THE Lake at last—a sheet of shining metal brooded over by drooping trees.
Summer|Edith Wharton
Long he sat, and the darkness fell over the moor, matching the darkness that brooded over his heart and mind.
The Underworld|James C. Welsh
It was with him, therefore, that I proposed to my fellow-captive to try our long-brooded and cherished scheme of deliverance.
Confessions of a Thug|Philip Meadows Taylor
There was sadness in it, and pain, and the gray wintry sky brooded of sorrows to come.
The Underworld|James C. Welsh

British Dictionary definitions for brood

brood

/ (bruːd) /

noun

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

verb

(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

Derived forms of brood

brooding, noun, adjectivebroodingly, adverb

Word Origin for brood

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 Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

brood

OTHER WORDS FOR brood

Origin of brood

synonym study for brood

OTHER WORDS FROM brood

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH brood

Words related to brood

How to use brood in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for brood

Derived forms of brood

Word Origin for brood