SYNONYMS | EXAMPLES | WORD ORIGIN 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 forms brood·ing·ly , adverb non·brood·ing , adjective, noun un·brood·ing , adjective 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.
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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.
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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 ).
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adjective kept for breeding: a brood hen.
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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.
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Origin of brood before 1000; Middle English; Old English brōd; cognate with
Dutch broed, German Brut. See
breed Related forms brood·less , adjective un·brood·ed , adjective 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. 2019
Related Words for brooding daydream ,
grieve ,
meditate ,
sulk ,
mope ,
ruminate ,
fret ,
gloom ,
ponder ,
consider ,
deliberate ,
sigh ,
repine ,
despond ,
muse ,
reflect ,
lament ,
speculate ,
dream ,
bleed Examples from the Web for brooding Contemporary Examples of brooding 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 of brooding 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.
British Dictionary definitions for brooding 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 breeding a brood mare
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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
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Derived Forms brooding , noun , adjective broodingly , 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
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").
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n. "action of incubating," c.1400, verbal noun from brood (v.). Figuratively (of weather, etc.) from 1805; of mental fixations by 1873. Related: Broodingly .
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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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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 .
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
