Brood Definition
bro͝od
brooded, brooding, broods
noun
broods
The offspring, or a family of offspring, of animals; esp., a group of birds or fowl hatched at one time and cared for together.
Webster's New World
All the children in a family.
Webster's New World
A group of a particular breed or kind.
The new brood of poets.
Webster's New World
(mining) Heavy waste in tin and copper ores.
Wiktionary
Antonyms:
verb
brooded, brooding, broods
To focus the attention on a subject persistently and moodily; worry.
Brooded about his future; brooded over the insult for several days.
American Heritage
To hover over or protect (offspring, etc.) with or as with wings.
Webster's New World
To be depressed.
All he seemed to do was sit and brood.
American Heritage
To sit on and hatch (eggs)
Webster's New World
To ponder in a troubled or morbid way.
To brood revenge.
Webster's New World
Antonyms:
- not worry
adjective
Kept for breeding.
A brood hen.
Webster's New World
Origin of Brood
-
From Middle English brood, brod, from Old English brōd (“brood; foetus; breeding, hatching”), from Proto-Germanic *brōduz (“heat, breeding”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrē- (“breath, mist, vapour, steam”). Cognate with Scots brude, brod (“brood, child, offspring”), Dutch broed (“spawn”), German Brut (“breeding, progeny, incubation, brood”).
From Wiktionary
-
Middle English from Old English brōd bhreu- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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