brood

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time and cared for by the same mother. See Synonyms at flock¹.
2. n. The children in one family.
3. v. To sit on or hatch (eggs).
4. v. To protect (young) by or as if by covering with the wings.
5. v. To sit on or hatch eggs.
6. v. To hover envelopingly; loom.
7. v. To be deep in thought; meditate.
8. v. To focus the attention on a subject persistently and moodily; worry: brooded over the insult for several days.
9. v. To be depressed.
10. adj. Kept for breeding: a brood hen.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Offspring; progeny.
2. n. A hatch; the young birds hatched in one nest, or those placed together in the care of one hen, or in an artificial brooder: as, a brood of chickens or of ducks.
3. n. That which is bred; species generated; that which is produced; hence, figuratively, sort or kind.
4. n. In mining, any heterogeneous mixture with tin or copper ore, as mundic or black-jack.
5. n. A north of Scotland name for salmon-fry.
6. n. Synonyms Covey, etc. See flock.
7. To sit persistently on eggs, covering and warming them with the body and wings, for the purpose of hatching them: said of birds.
8. To rest fixedly like a brooding bird.
9. To meditate long and anxiously; remain a long time in anxiety or solicitous thought; have the mind dwelling persistently on a subject: with on or over.
10. To sit over, cover, and cherish: as, a hen broods her chicks; hence, to nourish.
11. To cherish with care.
12. To ponder over; plan or mature with care: as, “to brood war,”
13. An obsolete form of broad.
14. n. Oyster spat in the second year of development.
15. To incubate: as, brooded eggs.

Wiktionary

1. n. The young of certain animals, especially a group of young birds or fowl hatched at one time by the same mother.
2. n. uncountable The young of any egg-laying creature, especially if produced at the same time.
3. n. 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.
4. n. The children in one family.
5. v. transitive To keep an egg warm to make it hatch.
6. v. transitive To protect.
7. v. intransitive To dwell upon moodily and at length.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The young birds hatched at one time; a hatch.
2. n. 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.
3. n. That which is bred or produced; breed; species.
4. n. (Mining) Heavy waste in tin and copper ores.
5. adj. Sitting or inclined to sit on eggs.
6. adj. Kept for breeding from; ; having young.
7. v. 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.
8. v. 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.
9. v. To sit over, cover, and cherish.
10. v. rare To cherish with care.
11. v. To think anxiously or moodily upon.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. hang over, as of something threatening, dark, or menacing
2. v. think moodily or anxiously about something
3. n. the young of an animal cared for at one time
4. v. sit on (eggs)
5. v. be in a huff and display one's displeasure
6. v. be in a huff; be silent or sullen