Brooding

//ˈbɹuːdɪŋ// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A spell of brooding; the time when someone broods.

    "The lyrics are different: gone are the dreamy, un-self-conscious proclamations of affection from the EP (which was reissued with additional tracks), replaced with vividly dark broodings, thick with doubt and fear."

  2. 2
    persistent morbid meditation on a problem wordnet
  3. 3
    sitting on eggs so as to hatch them by the warmth of the body wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of brood form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    Broody; incubating eggs by sitting on them.

    "A brooding hen can be aggressive."

  2. 2
    Deeply or seriously thoughtful.

    "You like T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"? You must be so brooding and deep."

Adjective
  1. 1
    deeply or seriously thoughtful wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
augurousbalefulbodefulbodingbroodychapfallen

Example

More examples

"The hen has been brooding its eggs for a week."

More for "brooding"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.