incubates

Verb

incubate (third-person singular simple present incubates, present participle incubating, simple past and past participle incubated)

1. (transitive) 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
2. (figuratively, transitive) 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

See all 3 meanings of incubate