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Glite Dictionary
🤔 With deep thought 🐣 Like a nesting bird
broodingly

broodingly

7.8
While sitting on eggs to keep them warm
  • adverb
  • /ˈbruːdɪŋli/
  • Specialized
translation icon : incubando
  • The hen sat broodingly over her eggs.

Examples

  • The hen sat broodingly on her eggs, barely moving for hours.

  • Sitting broodingly on the eggs, the hen rarely left the nest.

  • He watched the nest broodingly, making sure no predators came near.

  • The bird returned broodingly to the nest after gathering food.

  • Do you think the mother bird is broodingly watching over her eggs?

  • The mother bird was broodingly attentive to her nest, ensuring the eggs were safe.

  • He observed broodingly as the hen kept her eggs warm under her wings.

Surface Forms

broodingly positive

Morphology

broodingly = brooding (transparent) = brood + ing + ly

Formed by adding '-ly' to 'brooding' (present participle/adjective) with the incubating sense; if a learner knows this sense of 'brood' the adverbial meaning is predictable.

Etymology

Broodingly comes from the verb brood, which means 'to sit on eggs' or protect young birds, so think of a hen keeping her eggs warm and still. So, to act broodingly in this sense is to sit or move in the careful, protective way of an incubating bird.