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Crossword clues for broody

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
broody
adjective
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ After that she said nothing for a while, only sat watching me in a broody way.
▪ I was left broody, solemn, sad.
▪ Men, under these circumstances, would have no broody gene of their own.
▪ Once he put a broody hen on a clutch of eggs and ten little chicks hatched out.
▪ She tried to clear them from her mind, but was broody over breakfast.
▪ The broody hens were taken and the young pheasants ignored.
▪ They're a broody looking fivesome, all dark clothes and darker expressions.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Broody

Broody \Brood"y\, a. Inclined to brood.
--Ray.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
broody

1510s, "apt to breed," from brood (v.) + -y (2). Figuratively, of persons, from 1851. Also, in modern use, sometimes "full of maternal yearning." Related: Broodily; broodiness.

Wiktionary
broody

a. 1 (Of birds) sitting persistently and protectively on a nest, in order to hatch eggs (eg, 'a broody hen'). 2 (Of any creature or person) acting interested in raising young. n. (Poultry) A female bird which is in the condition to incubate eggs; a broody hen, duck, etc.

WordNet
broody
  1. adj. physiologically ready to incubate eggs; "a broody hen"

  2. persistently or morbidly thoughtful [syn: brooding, contemplative, meditative, musing, pensive, pondering, reflective, ruminative]

  3. [also: broodiest, broodier]

broody
  1. n. a domestic hen ready to brood [syn: brood hen, broody hen, setting hen, sitter]

  2. [also: broodiest, broodier]

Usage examples of "broody".

What talent or ability had enabled the original ancestress of such broody, beetle-browed women to establish a parthenogenetic clan?

But now, in the unillusioned light and broody quiet of a Sabbath morn, the cold, silent mill, shorn of its nebulous halo, looked old and worn--an aged actor off the stage.

Since there was no cemetery in Macondo at that time, for no one had died up till then, they kept the bag of bones to wait for a worthy place of burial, and for a long time it got in the way everywhere and would be found where least expected, always with its clucking of a broody hen.

She's the one who's rich, and she don't sit on her money like an old broody hen expecting to hatch it neither!

Hurrying to the chicken coop, he placed an egg under a broody hen.

She hovers over Leatrice like a broody hen and orders her around like a busybody.

He can smell the shavings in the hen house, feel the smooth warmth of brown eggs gathered from under a broody hen.

Little David squatted on his score like a broody hen on eggs, with his beak wide open, and his neck jerking in and out.

Admiralty and Air Force are watching her like a broody hen over her eggs.

I'm a free woman and healthy as a horse and you can't mother me every minute like a broody hen.