adv. prop. phr. also 3–4 abrode. [A prep.1 + BROOD sb.] On its brood or eggs; hatching eggs; breeding young, mischief, etc.
a. 1250. Owl & Nightingale, 518. So sone so thu sittest abrode, Thu for-lost al thine wise.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R. (1495), XII. ii. 409. The egle is a foule that selde syttyth abrood and selde hath byrdes.
1586. Hooker, Giraldus’s Hist. Irel., II. 153/2. That Romish cockatrice, which a long time had set abrood vpon hir egs, had now hatched hir chickins.
1656. J. Trapp, Exp. Matt. v. 8 (1868), 48 b. The natural heart is Satan’s throne … he sits abrood upon it.
1694. Abp. Sancroft, Serm., 135. The Spirit of God sate abrood upon the whole rude Mass, as Birds upon their Eggs.
1839. Birmingham Jrnl., 12 Jan., 6/2. The patient hen as she sits abrood, lonely, fasting, and apart from all the joys of birdhood.
