BROOD

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does brood mean? 

• BROOD (noun)
  The noun BROOD has 1 sense:

1. the young of an animal cared for at one time

  Familiarity information: BROOD used as a noun is very rare.

• BROOD (verb)
  The verb BROOD has 5 senses:

1. think moodily or anxiously about something

2. hang over, as of something threatening, dark, or menacing

3. be in a huff and display one's displeasure

4. be in a huff; be silent or sullen

5. sit on (eggs)

  Familiarity information: BROOD used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BROOD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The young of an animal cared for at one time

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("brood" is a kind of...):

animal group (a group of animals)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "brood"):

clutch (a number of birds hatched at the same time)

Derivation:

brood (sit on (eggs))

• BROOD (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they brood    ... he / she / it broods   
Past simple: brooded   
Past participle: brooded   
-ing form: brooding   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Think moodily or anxiously about something

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

brood; dwell

Hypernyms (to "brood" is one way to...):

care; worry (be concerned with)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sentence example:

Sam and Sue brood over the results of the experiment

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hang over, as of something threatening, dark, or menacing

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

brood; bulk large; hover; loom

Context example:

The terrible vision brooded over her all day long

Hypernyms (to "brood" is one way to...):

hang (be menacing, burdensome, or oppressive)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "brood"):

dominate; eclipse; overshadow (be greater in significance than)

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Sentence examples:

Some big birds brood in the tree
There brood some big birds in the tree

Sense 3

Meaning:

Be in a huff and display one's displeasure

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

brood; pout; sulk

Context example:

She is pouting because she didn't get what she wanted

"Brood" entails doing...:

resent (feel bitter or indignant about)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "brood"):

brood; grizzle; stew (be in a huff; be silent or sullen)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 4

Meaning:

Be in a huff; be silent or sullen

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

brood; grizzle; stew

Hypernyms (to "brood" is one way to...):

brood; pout; sulk (be in a huff and display one's displeasure)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 5

Meaning:

Sit on (eggs)

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

brood; cover; hatch; incubate

Context example:

The female covers the eggs

Hypernyms (to "brood" is one way to...):

multiply; procreate; reproduce (have offspring or produce more individuals of a given animal or plant)

"Brood" entails doing...:

sit; sit down (take a seat)

Verb group:

hatch (emerge from the eggs)

breed; cover (copulate with a female, used especially of horses)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

brood (the young of an animal cared for at one time)

brooder (apparatus consisting of a box designed to maintain a constant temperature by the use of a thermostat; used for chicks or premature infants)

 Context examples 

In some degree, also, they diverted my mind from the thoughts over which it had brooded for the last month.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I have visited him again and found him sitting in a corner brooding.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

All day Buck brooded by the pool or roamed restlessly about the camp.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Yappers and blatherskites, the whole brood of them!

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

If I don't brood over all I want, it is the better for me, and not the worse for anyone.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A question about whether an individual is or has been moody or brooded about things.

(Have You Been Moody or Brooded About Things, NCI Thesaurus)

“Not for gold or silver, but for flesh and blood: let me again this evening speak with the bridegroom in his chamber, and I will give thee the whole brood.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Indeed, his mood was infectious, for I lay tossing half the night myself, brooding over this strange problem, and inventing a hundred theories, each of which was more impossible than the last.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Brooding over the case in that den of his, it suddenly struck him what absolutely damning evidence he could make against McFarlane by using that thumb-mark.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So it doesn't make sense for deep-sea octopuses to brood eggs in warm water, scientists say: That's usually suicide.

(Giant group of octopus moms discovered in the deep sea, National Science Foundation)