Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Brood

Brood (bro͞od), n. [OE. brod, AS. brōd; akin to D. broed, OHG. bruot, G. brut, and also to G. brühe broth, MHG. brüeje, and perh. to E. brawn, breath. Cf. Breed, v. t.] 1. The young birds hatched at one time; a hatch; as, a brood of chickens.

As a hen doth gather her brood under her wings. Luke xiii. 34.

A hen followed by a brood of ducks. Spectator.

2. The young from the same dam, whether produced at the same time or not; young children of the same mother, especially if nearly of the same age; offspring; progeny; as, a woman with a brood of children.

The lion roars and gluts his tawny brood. Wordsworth.

3. That which is bred or produced; breed; species.

Flocks of the airy brood, (Cranes, geese or long-necked swans). Chapman.

4. (Mining) Heavy waste in tin and copper ores.

To sit on brood, to ponder. [Poetic] Shak.

Brood, a. 1. Sitting or inclined to sit on eggs.

2. Kept for breeding from; as, a brood mare; brood stock; having young; as, a brood sow.

Brood (brōch), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Brooded; p. pr. & vb. n. Brooding.] 1. To sit on and cover eggs, as a fowl, for the purpose of warming them and hatching the young; or to sit over and cover young, as a hen her chickens, in order to warm and protect them; hence, to sit quietly, as if brooding.

Birds of calm sir brooding on the charmed wave. Milton.

2. To have the mind dwell continuously or moodily on a subject; to think long and anxiously; to be in a state of gloomy, serious thought; — usually followed by over or on; as, to brood over misfortunes.

Brooding on unprofitable gold. Dryden.

Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit. Hawthorne.

When with downcast eyes we muse and brood. Tennyson.

Brood (bro͞od), v. t. 1. To sit over, cover, and cherish; as, a hen broods her chickens.

2. To cherish with care. [R.]

3. To think anxiously or moodily upon.

You'll sit and brood your sorrows on a throne. Dryden.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.