brood

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To think anxiously or unhappily about something for a long time.

   He sat in the corner brooding over the argument all evening.

2. 2
   noun

   A group of young birds or animals hatched or born at the same time to one mother.

   The hen sheltered her whole brood under her wings.

3. 3
   verb

   To sit on eggs in order to hatch them.

   The hens are brooding and should not be disturbed.

4. 4
   verb

   To hang over a place in a dark, threatening way.

   A sense of dread brooded over the empty house.

From Middle English brood, brod, from Old English brōd (“brood; foetus; breeding, hatching”), from Proto-Germanic *brōduz (“heat, breeding”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreh₁- (“breath, mist, vapour, steam”).

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