brood

UK/bɹuːd/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/bɹʉwd/

brood noun: the young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time by the same mother.

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.
- As a hen doth gather her brood under her wings.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 13:34
(uncountable) The young of any egg-laying creature, especially if produced at the same time.
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.
The children in one family; offspring.
- 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...
- 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, →ISBN, page 243
That which is bred or produced; breed; species.
- […] 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, →OCLC
Parentage.
Heavy waste in tin and copper ores.
A large number or crowd of people, animals, or objects.

Adjective

brood (not comparable)

Kept or reared for breeding.
- brood ducks
- a brood mare

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 over, on or about) To dwell upon one's thoughts moodily and at length, mainly alone.
- He sat brooding over the upcoming battle, fearing the outcome.
- As when with downcast eyes we muse and brood1833, Alfred Tennyson, (Please provide the book title or journal name)
(intransitive) To be bred.

brood meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam

brood in Tamil

அடைக்காத்தல் செய், நினைத்தேங்கு, விருத்தம், ஓரடைக் குஞ்சுகள், குஞ்சுகள், குஞ்சுகள் அடை

brood in Bengali

কিছু প্রাণীর শাবক, মৌমাছি, এক পরিবারের সন্তানেরা, বংশধর, উৎপাদিত হয়েছে, জাত

brood in Malayalam

അടയിരിക്കുക

More languagesFewer languages

brood in Kannada: ಕಾವುಕೊಡು, ಕೊರಂಗು, ಕೊರಗು
brood in Vietnamese: ấp

Examples of brood in a sentence

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, →OCLC:
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.1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter XI.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951...
Fitzwilliam was of a genial, even playful, disposition, but he had come home brooding and depressed.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards...
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.1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 9, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 182:

All 33 example sentences with brood

Forms of brood

Noun
plural	broods
Verb
third-person singular present	broods
present participle	brooding
past participle	brooded
past	brooded

Plural of brood: broods

Origin of brood

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”).

Words formed from brood

Phrases with brood

Words that rhyme with brood

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about brood

What does brood mean?: Brood means the young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time by the same mother.
What is brood in Hindi?: Brood in Hindi is झोल (jhol). See Brood meaning in Hindi.
How do you use brood in a sentence?: Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit.
What part of speech is brood?: Brood can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce brood?: Brood is pronounced /bɹuːd/ (UK).
What is the plural of brood?: The plural of brood is broods.

Words near brood in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: brood (page history and authors); झोल (Hindi) (page history and authors); brood (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brood (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brood (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brood (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-brood.ogg.

Cite this entry: “brood.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brood. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.