Definition of "brood"

brood

/bɹuːd/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural broods
1. The young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time by the same mother.
  Quotations
  As a hen doth gather her brood under her wings.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Luke 13:34
2. (uncountable) The young of any egg-laying creature, especially if produced at the same time.
3. (countable, uncountable) The eggs and larvae of social insects such as bees, ants and some wasps, especially when gathered together in special brood chambers or combs within the colony.
4. (countable, uncountable) The children in one family; offspring.
  Quotations
  Ay, lord, she will become thy bed, I warrant, / And bring thee forth brave brood.
  1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]
  Garland Green, the tenth in a brood of eleven, was born on June 24, 1942, in Dunleath, Mississippi.
  1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, page 243
5. That which is bred or produced; breed; species.
  Quotations
  […] flocks of the airy brood, / Cranes, geese or long-neck'd swans, here, there, proud of their pinions fly […]
  1598, George Chapman translation of Homer's Iliad, Book 2
  Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,And make the earth devour her own sweet brood […]
  1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 19”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley
6. Parentage.
7. (mining) Heavy waste in tin and copper ores.
adjective
not comparable
1. (of animals) Kept or reared for breeding.
verb
third-person singular simple present broods, present participle brooding, simple past and past participle brooded
1. (transitive) To keep an egg warm to make it hatch.
2. (transitive) To protect (something that is gradually maturing); to foster.
3. (intransitive) (typically with about or over) To dwell upon moodily and at length, mainly alone.
  Quotations
  As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood
  1833, Alfred Tennyson, (Please provide the book title or journal name)
  Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit.
  1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 6, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields
  But Claggart's was no vulgar form of the passion. Nor, as directed toward Billy Budd, did it partake of that streak of apprehensive jealousy that marred Saul's visage perturbedly brooding on the comely young David. Claggart's envy struck deeper.
  1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XI.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, pages 256–257
  And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.
  1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 9, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, page 182
4. (intransitive) To be bred.

Definition of "brood"

brood

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

adjective

verb

Quotations