brood

See also: Brood and Brööd

Etymology

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”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /bɹuːd/
Audio (US): (file)
(Scotland) IPA^(key): /bɹʉd/
Rhymes: -uːd
Homophone: brewed (except Scotland, Wales)

Noun

brood (countable and uncountable, plural broods)

The young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time by the same mother.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 13:34:
  As a hen doth gather her brood under her wings.
(uncountable) The young of any egg-laying creature, especially if produced at the same time.
(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.
(countable, uncountable) The children in one family; offspring.
- 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, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
  Ay, lord, she will become thy bed, I warrant, / And bring thee forth brave brood.
- 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 243:
  Garland Green, the tenth in a brood of eleven, was born on June 24, 1942, in Dunleath, Mississippi.
That which is bred or produced; breed; species.
- 1598, George Chapman translation of Homer's Iliad, Book 2:
  […] flocks of the airy brood,
  
  Cranes, geese or long-neck'd swans, here, there, proud of their pinions fly […]
- 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, →OCLC:
  Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
  And make the earth devour her own sweet brood […]
Parentage.
(mining) Heavy waste in tin and copper ores.

Derived terms

Translations

the young of certain animals

Bulgarian: котило (bg) n (kotilo)
Danish: kuld (da) n
Dutch: gebroed (nl) n, legsel (nl) n, nageslacht (nl) n, nest (nl) n
Finnish: pesue (fi), poikue (fi)
French: couvée (fr) f
Galician: niñada (gl) f, rolada (gl) f
Greek: κλωσσόπουλο (el) n (klossópoulo)
Hungarian: fészekalja (hu)
Irish: ál (ga) m, éillín m
Italian: nidiata (it) f pl, prole (it) f
Latvian: vaisla f
Macedonian: пи́ле n (píle)
Maori: punipuni
Portuguese: ninhada (pt) f
Romanian: puiet (ro) n
Russian: вы́водок (ru) m (vývodok)
Spanish: cría (es) f
Swedish: kull (sv) c

the young of any egg-laying creature

Bulgarian: люпило (bg) n (ljupilo)
Dutch: broedsel (nl) n
Finnish: pesue (fi), poikue (fi)
French: couvée (fr) f
Galician: niñada (gl) f
Hebrew: תְּטוּלָה (he) f (tetulá)
Irish: ál (ga) m, éillín m
Italian: schiusa (it) f
Maori: kāwaiwai (of ducklings)
Portuguese: ninhada (pt) f
Russian: вы́водок (ru) m (vývodok)
Spanish: polluelo m

the children in one family

Albanian: bark (sq) m
Dutch: nageslacht (nl) n, maagschap (nl), sibbe (nl)
Finnish: katras (fi), pesue (fi)
Galician: fruxe f
Irish: ál (ga) m
Italian: prole (it) f pl
Macedonian: по́томство n (pótomstvo)
Portuguese: prole (pt) f
Russian: пото́мство (ru) n (potómstvo)
Spanish: prole (es) f
Swedish: barnaskara c

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

French: ^{(please verify)} couvée (fr) f
German: ^{(please verify)} Brut (de) f
Italian: ^{(please verify)} covata (it) f, ^{(please verify)} nidiata (it) f
Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} leglo (sh) n

Adjective

brood (not comparable)

(of animals) Kept or reared for breeding.
brood ducks

a brood mare

Translations

kept or reared for breeding

Galician: de cría
Russian: племенно́й (ru) m (plemennój), племенна́я f (plemennája), племенно́е n (plemennóje), племенны́е m pl or f pl or n pl (plemennýje)

Verb

brood (third-person singular simple present broods, present participle brooding, simple past and past participle brooded)

(transitive) To keep an egg warm to make it hatch.
In some species of birds, both the mother and father brood the eggs.
(transitive) To protect (something that is gradually maturing); to foster.
Under the rock was a midshipman fish, brooding a mass of eggs.
(intransitive) (typically with about or over) To dwell upon moodily and at length, mainly alone.
He sat brooding about the upcoming battle, fearing the outcome.
- 1833, Alfred Tennyson, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
  As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood
- 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 6, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
  Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit.
- 1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XI.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC, pages 256–257:
  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.
- 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 9, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 182:
  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.
(intransitive) To be bred.