To sit on brood, to ponder. [Poetic] Shak.
Brood, a. 1. Sitting or inclined to sit on eggs.
2. Kept for breeding from; as, a brood mare; brood stock; having young; as, a brood sow.
Brood (brch), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Brooded; p. pr. & vb. n. Brooding.] 1. 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.
Birds of calm sir brooding on the charmed wave.
Milton.
2. 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; as, to brood over misfortunes.
Brooding on unprofitable gold.
Dryden.
Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit.
Hawthorne.
When with downcast eyes we muse and brood.
Tennyson.
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Brood (brd), v. t. 1. To sit over, cover, and cherish; as, a hen broods her chickens.