brood

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
brood/bruːd/

▶noun

• 1 a family of young animals, especially birds, produced at one hatching or birth.

• 2 bee or wasp larvae.

▶verb

• 1 think deeply about something that makes one unhappy.

• 2 (as adj. brooding) appearing darkly menacing.

• 3 (of a bird) sit on (eggs) to hatch them.

  ■ (of a fish, frog, or invertebrate) hold (developing eggs) within the body.

▶adjective (of an animal) kept to be used for breeding: a brood mare.

– derivatives
broodingly adverb.

– origin OE brōd, of Gmc origin; rel. to breed.