Brood

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Brood, 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.].

•  The young birds hatched at one time; a hatch; as, a brood of chickens.  [1913 Webster]

  "As a hen doth gather her brood under her wings."  [1913 Webster]

  "A hen followed by a brood of ducks."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "The lion roars and gluts his tawny brood."  [1913 Webster]
•  That which is bred or produced; breed; species.  [1913 Webster]

  "Flocks of the airy brood,
  (Cranes, geese or long-necked swans)."  [1913 Webster]
•  Heavy waste in tin and copper ores.  [1913 Webster]

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

Brood, a. 

•  Sitting or inclined to sit on eggs.  [1913 Webster]
•  Kept for breeding from; as, a brood mare; brood stock; having young; as, a brood sow.  [1913 Webster]

Brood, v. i. 

•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "Birds of calm sir brooding on the charmed wave."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "Brooding on unprofitable gold."  [1913 Webster]

  "Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit."  [1913 Webster]

  "When with downcast eyes we muse and brood."  [1913 Webster]

Brood, v. t. 

•  To sit over, cover, and cherish; as, a hen broods her chickens.  [1913 Webster]
•  To cherish with care.  [1913 Webster]
•  To think anxiously or moodily upon.  [1913 Webster]

  "You'll sit and brood your sorrows on a throne."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Brood, n. & v.
--n.
1 the young of an animal (esp. a bird) produced at one hatching or birth.
2 colloq. the children in a family.
3 a group of related things.
4 bee or wasp larvae.
5 (attrib.) kept for breeding (brood-mare).
--v.
1 intr. (often foll. by on, over, etc.) worry or ponder (esp. resentfully).
2 a intr. sit as a hen on eggs to hatch them. b tr. sit on (eggs) to hatch them.
3 intr. (usu. foll. by over) (of silence, a storm, etc.) hang or hover closely.

Derivative

broodingly adv.

Etymology

OE brod f. Gmc

THESAURUS

Brood

agonize, animal kingdom, be abstracted, be gravid, be knocked up, be pregnant, be with child, blood, breed, carry, carry young, chew the cud, children, clan, class, clock, clutch, consider, contemplate, cover, debate, deliberate, deme, descendants, descent, despair, despond, digest, family, farrow, folk, folks, fret, fruit, fry, gens, gestate, get, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, hatch, hearth, heirs, homefolks, hostages to fortune, house, household, incubate, inheritors, introspect, issue, kids, kind, line, lineage, litter, little ones, matriclan, meditate, menage, mope, muse, muse on, muse over, nation, nest, new generation, offspring, order, patriclan, people, perpend, phratry, phyle, pine, plant kingdom, play around with, play with, ponder, ponder over, posterity, pout, progeniture, progeny, race, reflect, rising generation, ruminate, ruminate over, seed, sept, set, sit, sons, spat, spawn, species, speculate, stem, stirps, stock, strain, study, succession, sulk, totem, toy with, treasures, tribe, weigh, worry, young, younglings, youngsters

ROGET THESAURUS

Brood

Multitude

N multitude, numerous, numerosity, numerality, multiplicity, profusion, legion, host, great number, large number, round number, enormous number, a quantity, numbers, array, sight, army, sea, galaxy, scores, peck, bushel, shoal, swarm, draught, bevy, cloud, flock, herd, drove, flight, covey, hive, brood, litter, farrow, fry, nest, crowd, lots, all in the world and his wife, greater number, majority, multiplication, multiple, many, several, sundry, divers, various, not a few, Briarean, a hundred, a thousand, a myriad, a million, a quadrillion, a nonillion, a thousand and one, some ten or a dozen, some forty or fifty, half a dozen, half a hundred, very many, full many, ever so many, numerous, numerose, profuse, in profusion, manifold, multiplied, multitudinous, multiple, multinominal, teeming, populous, peopled, crowded, thick, studded, galore, thick coming, many more, more than one can tell, a world of, no end of, no end to, cum multis aliis, thick as hops, thick as hail, plenty as blackberries, numerous as the stars in the firmament, numerous as the sands on the seashore, numerous as the hairs on the head, and what not, and heaven knows what, endless, their name is 'legion', acervatim, en foule, many- headed multitude, numerous as glittering gems of morning dew, vel prece vel pretio.

Posterity

N posterity, progeny, breed, issue, offspring, brood, litter, seed, farrow, spawn, spat, family, grandchildren, heirs, great-grandchild, child, son, daughter, butcha, bantling, scion, acrospire, plumule, shoot, sprout, olive-branch, sprit, branch, off-shoot, off- set, ramification, descendant, heir, heiress, heir-apparent, heir- presumptive, chip off the old block, heredity, rising generation, straight descent, sonship, line, lineage, filiation, primogeniture, filial, diphyletic, the child is father of the man, the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, like father, like son.