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brooding

 - 7 dictionary results

brood⋅ing

  [broo-ding]
Use brooding in a Sentence
–adjective
1. preoccupied with depressing, morbid, or painful memories or thoughts: a brooding frame of mind.
2. cast in subdued light so as to convey a somewhat threatening atmosphere: Dusk fell on the brooding hills.
Origin:
1810–20 for def. 1; 1640–50 for def. 2; brood + -ing 2

Related forms:
brood⋅ing⋅ly, adverb

brood

  [brood]
–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 fol. by over or on).
–adjective
8. kept for breeding: a brood hen.
—Verb phrase
9. brood above or over, to cover, loom, or seem to fill the atmosphere or scene: The haunted house on the hill brooded above the village.
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME; OE brōd; c. D broed, G Brut. See breed

Related forms:
broodless, adjective

Synonyms:
1. Brood, litter refer to young creatures. Brood is esp. 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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To brooding
brood   (brōōd)   
n.  

  1. The young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time and cared for by the same mother. See Synonyms at flock1.

  2. The children in one family.

v.   brood·ed, brood·ing, broods

v.   tr.

  1. To sit on or hatch (eggs).

  2. To protect (young) by or as if by covering with the wings.

v.   intr.

  1. To sit on or hatch eggs.

  2. To hover envelopingly; loom.

    1. To be deep in thought; meditate.

    2. To focus the attention on a subject persistently and moodily; worry: brooded over the insult for several days.

    3. To be depressed.

adj.  Kept for breeding: a brood hen.

[Middle English, from Old English brōd; see bhreu- in Indo-European roots.]
brood'ing·ly adv.
Synonyms: These verbs mean to turn over in the mind moodily and at length: brooding about his decline in popularity; dwelled on her defeat; fretted over the loss of his job; moping about his illness; stewing over her upcoming trial; worrying about the unpaid bills. See Also Synonyms at flock1.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

brood 
O.E. brod, from P.Gmc. *brod (cf. M.Du. broet, O.H.G. bruot), lit. "that which is hatched by heat," from *bro- "to warm, heat," from PIE *bhre- "burn, heat, incubate," from base *bhreue- "to boil, bubble, effervesce, burn" (see brew). The verbal figurative meaning ("to incubate in the mind") is first recorded 1571, from notion of "nursing" one's anger, resentment, etc.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 2brood
Function: transitive verb
1 a : to sit on or incubate (eggs) b : to produce by or as if by incubation
2 : to think anxiously or gloomily about brood intransitive senses
1 of a bird : to brood eggs or young
2 a : to dwell gloomilyon a subject b : to be in a state of depression
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

brood (br&oomacr;d)
n.
See litter.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Encyclopedia

brooding

in zoology, pattern of behaviour of certain egg-laying animals, especially birds, marked by cessation of egg laying and readiness to sit on and incubate eggs. Incubation (q.v.) itself is the process of maintaining uniform heat and humidity of the developing eggs, usually accomplished by one or both parents sitting on the eggs at all times. Many birds develop a brood patch-an area of bare, featherless skin on the underbody-in preparation for incubation and brooding. A network of blood vessels in the skin of the brood patch raises the temperature locally. After the hatch, the parent birds brood their young, keeping them warm by spreading the feathers out, umbrella-like, so the young can maintain contact with the skin of the adult. In domestic fowl the term "broody hen" refers both to a sitting (incubating) bird and, later, to the same hen brooding her chicks

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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