brooding

[broo-ding]

See more synonyms for brooding on Thesaurus.com

adjective

preoccupied with depressing, morbid, or painful memories or thoughts: a brooding frame of mind.
cast in subdued light so as to convey a somewhat threatening atmosphere: Dusk fell on the brooding hills.

Origin of brooding

1810–20 for def 1; 1640–50 for def 2; brood + -ing²

Related formsbrood·ing·ly, adverbnon·brood·ing, adjective, nounun·brood·ing, adjective

brood

[brood]

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.

Origin of brood

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

Related formsbrood·less, adjectiveun·brood·ed, adjective

Can be confusedbrewed brood

Synonyms

See more synonyms for brood on Thesaurus.com

2. line, stock, strain.

Synonym 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

Examples from the Web for brooding

Contemporary Examples

Carell is good in a brooding, atmospheric movie but Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo are better.
Channing Tatum Is the Real Star of ‘Foxcatcher'
Nico Hines
October 23, 2014
In the Jockey ad, half of Jim Palmer's princely, brooding face is fully lighted, the other half is masked in shadow.
Will the Real Jim Palmer Please Stand Up
Tom Boswell
September 27, 2014
I had left a party early, brooding about why I felt so strongly about something that, ostensibly, had “nothing to do with me.”
Men Without a Country: Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, My Father and Me
Arthur Chu
August 12, 2014
Hollywood is gripped by an obsession so all-consuming that no blockbuster is safe from its brooding influence.
The Ghastly ‘Maleficent’ and Why It’s Time For Hollywood to Kill the Dark Reboot
Andrew Romano
May 31, 2014
Nine times out of ten, it will conjure up an image of a brooding, sweaty, long-haired hunk.
Taylor Kitsch on ‘The Normal Heart,’ Homophobic Right-Wingers, and Gays in the Military
Marlow Stern
May 23, 2014

Historical Examples

Christopher stood silent, as if brooding on what he had seen.
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald
The birds, silent all in the brooding of night, rise ghostly to right and left.
The Forest
Stewart Edward White
He sat with his head bent and his elbow on his knee; brooding, brooding, brooding.
Henry Dunbar
M. E. Braddon
So she prepared for the possible future, not by brooding on it, but by doing the work of the present.
Heather and Snow
George MacDonald
Kay said nothing, but a brooding anger began to fill his heart.
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, November, 1930
Various

British Dictionary definitions for brooding

brood

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)
1. to sit on or hatch (eggs)
2. (tr)to cover (young birds) protectively with the wings
(when intr , often foll by on, over or upon) to ponder morbidly or persistently

Derived Formsbrooding, noun, adjectivebroodingly, adverb

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

Word Origin and History for brooding

adj.

1640s, "hovering, overhanging" (as a mother bird does her nest), from present participle of brood (v.); meaning "that dwells moodily" first attested 1818 (in "Frankenstein").

n.

"action of incubating," c.1400, verbal noun from brood (v.). Figuratively (of weather, etc.) from 1805; of mental fixations by 1873. Related: Broodingly.

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.)).

brood

v.

"sit on eggs, hatch," mid-15c., from brood (n.). The figurative meaning ("to incubate in the mind") is first recorded 1570s, from notion of "nursing" one's anger, resentment, etc. Related: Brooded; brooding.

brooding in Medicine

brood

(brōōd)

litter

brooding

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brood

Origin of brood

Synonyms

Synonym study

Examples from the Web for brooding

Contemporary Examples

Carell is good in a brooding, atmospheric movie but Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo are better.

In the Jockey ad, half of Jim Palmer's princely, brooding face is fully lighted, the other half is masked in shadow.

I had left a party early, brooding about why I felt so strongly about something that, ostensibly, had “nothing to do with me.”

Hollywood is gripped by an obsession so all-consuming that no blockbuster is safe from its brooding influence.

Nine times out of ten, it will conjure up an image of a brooding, sweaty, long-haired hunk.

Historical Examples

Christopher stood silent, as if brooding on what he had seen.

The birds, silent all in the brooding of night, rise ghostly to right and left.

He sat with his head bent and his elbow on his knee; brooding, brooding, brooding.

So she prepared for the possible future, not by brooding on it, but by doing the work of the present.

Kay said nothing, but a brooding anger began to fill his heart.

brood

Word Origin

Word Origin and History for brooding

adj.

n.

brood

n.

brood

v.

brood

Origin of brooding