[f. BROOD sb.]
I. trans. (mostly arch. or poet.)
1. To sit on (eggs) so as to hatch them; to incubate.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 53. Brodyn, as byrdys, foveo, fetifico.
1626. T. H., trans. Caussin’s Holy Crt., 166. If the hen brood not her eggs, she hath no desire to make them disclose.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., iii. 179. Gods Spirit … must incubate, and brood both, to make them fruitfull.
1816. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843), II. 41, note. That the eggs … are deposited in heaps and that the neuters brood them.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1869), 88. To breed a fresh Soul, is it not like brooding a fresh (celestial) Egg?
† b. To produce by brooding upon; to breed. (Cf. Gen. i. 2.) Obs.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., II. i. (1739), 8. A Chaos capable of any form that the next daring spirit shall brood upon it.
2. To cherish (young brood) under the wings, as a hen does; often fig.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. lvii. 2. To gather in our hope unto God, that he may broode us under his winges.
1587. Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1338/1. A hen a brooding hir chickens.
1639. Horn & Robotham, Gate Lang. Unl., xiv. § 147. They brood their broode under the covering of their wings.
1640. Bp. Hall, Episc., Ep. Ded. 3. This strange bird thus hatched by Farell … was afterwards brooded by two more famous successors.
1675. J. Smith, Chr. Relig. Appeal, I. 35. Those Gods, under whose wings I have been brooded.
b. To brood up: = BREED up, to rear.
1586. Warner, Alb. Eng., II. xi. 49. The thriftie Earth that bringeth out and broodeth vp her breed.
1610. Healey, St. Aug. Citie of God, 94. Not able to restraine them from brooding up such desires.
3. fig. To breed, hatch (products or projects); to produce as it were by incubation.
1613. Fletcher, Captain, II. i. 52. An ease that broodes Theeves and basterds onely.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 362. Hell, and not the heavens, brooded that design.
1802. Southey, Thalaba, III. i. There brood the pestilence, and let The earthquake loose.
1870. Lowell, Among my Bks., Ser. I. (1873), 183. By the natural processes of the creative faculty, to brood those flashes of expression that transcend rhetoric.
† 4. To cherish, nurse tenderly. Obs.
1618. T. Adams, Saints’ Meeting, Wks. 1861, II. 401. Pleasures, delights, riches, are hatched and brooded by the wicked as their own.
a. 1626. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, I. i. 97. This fellow broods his master.
b. To cherish in the mind, ‘to nurse wrath (or the like) to keep it warm’; to meditate upon, contemplate with feeling. Now usually to brood on or over: see sense 7.
1571. trans. Buchanan’s Detect. Mary. She temperately broodeth good luck.
1589. Warner, Alb. Eng., V. xxvii. 136. The world thus brooding Vanities.
1646. Fuller, Wounded Consc. (1841), 316. To sit moping to brood their melancholy.
1675. Dryden, Aurengz., V. i. 2230. You’ll sit and brood your Sorrows on a throne.
1784. Johnson, in Boswell, Life (1826), IV. 337. I have had no long time to brood hope.
1807. Crabbe, Village, II. 20. Their careful masters brood the painful thought.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, II. 61. Such wedlock even now He blindly broods, as shall uptear his kingdom.
II. intrans.
5. To sit as a hen on eggs; to sit or hover with outspread cherishing wings.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 933. Birds sit brooding in the snow.
1629. Milton, Nativ., v. Birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave. Ibid. (1667), P. L., I. 21. Thou … with mighty wings outspread Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss, And mad’st it pregnant.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., xviii. (1817), 147. A couple of sparrows … would build their nest, and brood upon their eggs.
1852. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Madonna (1857), 183. [The Dove] sometimes seems to brood immediately over the head of the Virgin.
6. fig. To sit on, or hang close over; to hover over; with some figurative reference to the action or attitude of a brooding bird. Said esp. of night, darkness, silence, mist, storm-clouds, and the like.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 339. Perpetual Night … In silence brooding on th’ unhappy ground.
1786. S. Rogers, Ode Superst., I. ii. Night … brooding, gave her shapeless shadows birth.
1810. T. Park, Confirm. Day, in Poet. Register, 31. The bishop’s blessing broods upon their heads, (As once o’er Jordan did the dove-like form).
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 191. Glencoe signifies the Glen of Weeping … Mists and storms brood over it through the greater part of the finest summer.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, xiii. 201. Silence brooded over the long undulations of the Park.
7. To meditate moodily, or with strong feeling, on or over; to dwell closely upon in the mind; to nurse or foster the feeling of.
1751. Johnson, Rambl., No. 185, ¶ 6. He who has often brooded over his wrongs.
1759. Franklin, Ess., Wks. 1840, III. 364. From the 21st to the 25th … the governor brooded over the two bills.
1805. Southey, Madoc in W., iii. I veil’d my head, and brooded on the past.
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. vi. Sit and deeply brood On dark revenge.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., I. v. 98. A mind for ever brooding over itself.
1876. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma, 196. It was on this that … their hopes brooded.
b. To meditate (esp. in a moody or morbid way).
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, V. iii. Their conversation allowed him no pause to brood.
1833. Tennyson, Poems, 151. With down cast eyes we muse and brood.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, I. 277. The egoistic character that loves to brood, and hates to act.
8. transf. a. To breed (interest).
1678. Butler, Hud., III. II. 861. Sums … That Brooding lie in Bankers Hands.
b. To lie as a cherished nestling, a cherished thought, etc. (Cf. 4 b and 6.)
1679. Dryden, Tr. & Cr., Pref. The Injury he had receiv’d … had long been brooding in his Mind.
1812. J. Wilson, Isle of Palms, III. 659. The dovelike rest That broods within her pious breast.
1850. Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, xvii. The themes that were brooding deepest in their hearts.
