incubate
/ˈɪŋkjʊbeɪt/
incubate verb: to brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision of ideal environmental conditions.
Verb
incubate (third-person singular simple present incubates, present participle incubating, simple past and past participle incubated)
- To brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision of ideal environmental conditions.
- The places where the birds are nesting are interesting spots to visit. Both parents incubate and the scene is animated as the birds fly about in all directions.1907, “Nesting Habits of the Passenger Pigeon”, in W. B. Mershon, editor, The Passenger Pigeon
- Part of our problem in praying for our children, he suggested, is the time lage, the necessary slow maturation of our prayers. But that's the way of God's rhythm in nature. For instance, the hen must patiently sit on her eggs to incubate them before the baby chicks hatch.1975, Catherine Marshall, Adventures in Prayer, New York: Ballantine Books, page 46
- To incubate metaphorically; to ponder an idea slowly and deliberately as if in preparation for hatching it.
- It was a habit he developed, of incubating and maturing his thought upon a subject, and of then rushing into the type-writer with it.1908 September – 1909 September, Jack London, chapter XXIII, in Martin Eden, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published September 1909, →OCLC
- When you've got your theme–let the concept incubate. Walk around with it, sleep on it.1992, Sheila Davis, The Songwriters Idea Book: 40 Strategies to Excite Your Imagination, Help You Design Distinctive Songs, and Keep Your Creative Flow, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, page 96
Noun
incubate (plural incubates)
- A preparation, or material, that has been incubated.
incubate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
incubate in Tamil
- brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue
- அடைகா aṭaikā
incubate in Urdu
- انڈے سینا, بیٹھنا, غور کرنا
incubate in Bengali
- ডিম ফোটানো, উষ্মায়ন, জীবাণু বংশবৃদ্ধি করা
incubate in Malayalam
- അടയിരിക്കുക, സാവകാശം വികസിപ്പിച്ചെടുക്കുക, മുട്ട വിരിയിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- incubate in Kannada
- ಕಾವುಕೊಡು
- incubate in Assamese
- উমা uma
- incubate in Thai
- ฟัก fák
Examples of incubate in a sentence
- The mother dead these fourteen years did incubate in her own bosom the creature who would carry her off.1985, Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian […] , →OCLC:
- The female cichlid fish are called "mouth breeders," which means they incubate eggs in their mouth.2004, A. J. Jacobs, The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, New York: Simon & Schuster, page 50:
Forms of incubate
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | incubates |
| present participle | incubating |
| past participle | incubated |
| past | incubated |
| Noun | |
| plural | incubates |
Origin of incubate
First attested in 1641; borrowed from Latin incubātus, an alternative to incubitus, perfect passive participle of incubō (“to hatch”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- (“in”) + cubō (“to lie”).
Words formed from incubate
Questions about incubate
- What does incubate mean?
- Incubate means to brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision of ideal environmental conditions.
- What is incubate in Tamil?
- Incubate in Tamil is அடைகா (aṭaikā). See Incubate meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use incubate in a sentence?
- The mother dead these fourteen years did incubate in her own bosom the creature who would carry her off.
- What part of speech is incubate?
- Incubate can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce incubate?
- Incubate is pronounced /ˈɪŋkjʊbeɪt/.
- What is the past tense of incubate?
- The past tense of incubate is incubated.
Words near incubate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: incubate (page history and authors); incubate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Incubate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incubate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); incubate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); উমা (Assamese) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-incubate.wav.
Cite this entry: “incubate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/incubate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.