brood

[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.
verb (used with object)
3.
to sit upon (eggs) to hatch, as a bird; incubate.
4.
(of a bird) to warm, protect, or cover (young) with the wings or body.
5.
to think or worry persistently or moodily about; ponder:
He brooded the problem.
verb (used without object)
6.
to sit upon eggs to be hatched, as a bird.
7.
to dwell on a subject or to meditate with morbid persistence (usually followed by over or on).
adjective
8.
kept for breeding:
a brood hen.
Verb phrases
9.
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
before 1000; Middle English; Old English brōd; cognate with Dutch broed, German Brut. See breed
Related forms
broodless, adjective
unbrooded, adjective
Can be confused
brewed, brood (see synonym study at the current entry)
Synonyms
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. 2. line, stock, strain.
Examples from the web for brood
  • They even have a brood of adopted children, who are happy and well cared for.
  • This heroine and her brood prove once again that they can weather any storm.
  • Gathering seeds for the hungry brood.
  • Don't take the A train if you brood easily.
  • The new eggs soon hatch and caterpillars identical to the spring brood appear.
  • Nobody said that coping with a new brood of competitors was going to be easy.
  • Raising a large brood of children and stepchildren, Lange frequently had to put her own work aside to run the household.
  • She laments her desperate situation as she tends the brood, unwittingly stirring her feathered friends to action.
  • Mother is determined to bring her brood together for Christmas.
  • Don't take a bad work situation home and brood.
British Dictionary definitions for brood

brood

/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
verb
5.
(of a bird)
  1. to sit on or hatch (eggs)
  2. (transitive) to cover (young birds) protectively with the wings
6.
when intr, often foll by on, over or upon. to ponder morbidly or persistently
Derived Forms
brooding, noun, adjective
broodingly, adverb
Word Origin
Old English brōd; related to Middle High German bruot, Dutch broed; see breed
Word Origin and History for 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.)).

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.

brood in Medicine

brood (brōōd)
n.
See litter.