incubate

American  

[in-kyuh-beyt, ing-] / ˈɪn kjəˌbeɪt, ˈɪŋ- /

verb (used with object)

• incubates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• incubated,
  past participle,  past
• incubating
  present participle

1. to sit upon (eggs) for the purpose of hatching.

2. to hatch (eggs), as by sitting upon them or by artificial heat.

3. to maintain at a favorable temperature and in other conditions promoting development, as cultures of bacteria or prematurely born infants.

4. to develop or produce as if by hatching; give form to.

   His brain was incubating schemes for raising money.

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verb (used without object)

• incubates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• incubated,
  past participle,  past
• incubating
  present participle

1. to sit upon eggs.

2. to undergo incubation.

3. to develop; grow; take form.

   A plan was slowly incubating in her mind.

incubate British  

/ ˈɪnkjʊˌbeɪt /

verb

1. (of birds) to supply (eggs) with heat for their development, esp by sitting on them

2. to cause (eggs, embryos, bacteria, etc) to develop, esp in an incubator or culture medium

3. (intr) (of eggs, embryos, bacteria, etc) to develop in favourable conditions, esp in an incubator

4. (intr) (of disease germs) to remain inactive in an animal or human before causing disease

5. to develop or cause to develop gradually; foment or be fomented

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• incubation
  noun
• incubational
  adjective
• incubative
  adjective
• unincubated
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• incubating
  present
• incubated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• incubate
  simple
• incubates
  simple
• have incubated
  perfect
• has incubated
  perfect
• am incubating
  progressive
• are incubating
  progressive
• is incubating
  progressive
• have been incubating
  perfect progressive
• has been incubating
  perfect progressive

Past

• incubated
  simple
• had incubated
  perfect
• was incubating
  progressive
• were incubating
  progressive
• had been incubating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will incubate
  simple
• will have incubated
  perfect
• will be incubating
  progressive
• will have been incubating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of incubate

First recorded in 1635–45; from Latin incubātus, past participle of incubāre “to lie or recline on, to sit on (eggs),” equivalent to in- “in” + cub(āre) “to sit, lie down” + -ātus past participle suffix; see in- ², -ate ¹. Cf. incumbent, concubine

Explanation

When a chicken sits on an egg, it incubates it. To incubate means to keep something safe and warm so that it can grow. The word can be used metaphorically to mean to keep something safe in order for it to have time to grow. You incubate a plan or an idea before bringing it into the world, or, metaphorically speaking, hatching it. Premature or particularly small babies are placed into an incubator when they are born. This warm, clean environment helps them to grow.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

incubate incubates incubated incubating

Among its members are Ulukaya, who has promised to give away most of his fortune, and plans to use part of Chobani’s new city offices to incubate food startups.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

While Nile crocodile eggs naturally incubate in underground nests in the wild, zoos typically hatch them in carefully controlled incubators, closely monitoring the temperature and humidity.

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

All seven eggs were safely recovered and Blakesley took them home to incubate.

From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026

They created PDA in 2022 as a place to incubate their work, not knowing the vast community they would draw in almost instantly.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2025

The shells of her eggs would be thin and eventually smash when she tried to incubate them.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

For more than 70 years, most annual flu vaccines have come from a manufacturing process that incubates the virus in chicken eggs.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

The male incubates the eggs for up to two months and looks after the hatchlings.

From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2024

Stockton also incubates eggs and cares for the turtles in the first year of their lives.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 8, 2022

Nothing incubates bad behavior better than the unconscious good behavior of people invested in creating a facade of togetherness.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 20, 2022

The emergence of hiv was subtle: it incubates for years in a human host before it kills the host.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

McLeod’s startup was incubated at Hinge, and Match Group, which owns Tinder and Hinge, is an investor.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

It sees vulnerable curlew nests taken from the wild and artificially incubated.

From BBC ● May 31, 2026

It was fitting that the dogfight took place at Edwards Air Force Base, a vast desert facility where Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound and the military has incubated its most secret aerospace advances.

From Seattle Times ● May 3, 2024

She used a pair of electrodes to deliver an 80-millisecond electric pulse to some samples, then incubated all the cells for 12 hours.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 30, 2024

The longer she incubated, the more deeply she went into the trance of incubation.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

“I had a chalupa yesterday to celebrate taco Tuesday. It had lettuce on it. Do I now have Cyclospora parasite incubating in my body?” one commenter wrote.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026

“We are now taking the foundry part of what we had been incubating and creating that as a resource” for the U.S. government, he said.

From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026

Parents take turns incubating the egg, which is highly sensitive to temperature.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2026

Both pairs have since rebuilt their nests in slightly higher locations and are incubating fresh clutches of eggs.

From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2026

Something there triggered the unfolding of those parts that had been incubating.

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg