brooding

brood  (brd)

n.

1. 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. The children in one family.

v. brood·ed, brood·ing, broods

v.tr.

1. To sit on or hatch (eggs).

2. To protect (young) by or as if by covering with the wings.

v.intr.

1. To sit on or hatch eggs.

2. To hover envelopingly; loom.

3.

a. To be deep in thought; meditate.

b. To focus the attention on a subject persistently and moodily; worry: brooded over the insult for several days.

c. To be depressed.

adj.

Kept for breeding: a brood hen.

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[Middle English, from Old English brd; see bhreu- in Indo-European roots.]

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brooding·ly adv.

Synonyms: brood, dwell, fret¹, mope, stew, worry
These verbs mean to turn over in the mind moodily and at length: brooding about his decline in popularity; dwelled on her defeat; fretted over the loss of his job; moping about his illness; stewing over her upcoming trial; worrying about the unpaid bills. See Also Synonyms at flock¹.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	brooding - sitting on eggs so as to hatch them by the warmth of the body incubation birthing, giving birth, parturition, birth - the process of giving birth
	2.	brooding - persistent morbid meditation on a problem pensiveness melancholy - a feeling of thoughtful sadness
Adj.	1.	brooding - deeply or seriously thoughtful; "Byron lives on not only in his poetry, but also in his creation of the 'Byronic hero' - the persona of a brooding melancholy young man"; contemplative, meditative, musing, pensive, pondering, reflective, ruminative, broody thoughtful - exhibiting or characterized by careful thought; "a thoughtful paper"