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🤔 Serious and thoughtful 🐔 Ready to nest 🐔 A nesting hen
broody

broody

1 8.5
Being ready to sit on eggs to hatch them
  • adjective
  • /ˈbruːdi/
translation icon : clueca
  • Sometimes an old hen, long past laying, would get broody and try to set the eggs of a younger hen.
  • broody hen
  • broody chicken
  • go broody

Examples

  • Evidently, Duck-Duck was broody and she wasn't particular about what species of eggs she sat on.

    Blog text (30)

  • Those bantams are always madly broody anyway.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Was she turning broody all of a sudden?

    Fiction book (1995)

  • First I'll give you a broody chicken update.

    Blog text (2)

  • We went from having 4-5 eggs a day to having 2-3 with the broody chicken.

    Blog text (2)

  • Will you stop fussing around like a couple of broody hens?

    The Dead (1987)

  • Our egg production started to decline when the broody chicken started hogging the nesting box.

    Blog text (2)

  • A broody hen was obstinate and uncooperative.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • I'm happy to report that she's joined the flock again and doesn't seem to be broody anymore!

    Blog text (2)

  • The broody hen sat quietly on her eggs, maintaining a steady warmth to ensure they would hatch.

Compounds

broody hen
5.4

A hen that sits on eggs to keep them warm until they hatch

How Broody

broody
1 8.5
inclined
194 3.8

Surface Forms

broody positive

Morphology

broody = brood (transparent) = brood + y

Clear adjectival formation from the verb 'brood' + -y meaning 'inclined to brood (sit on eggs)'; meaning is directly derived.

Etymology

Broody comes from the root brood, meaning 'young birds', and the adjective describes a hen that is ready to sit on eggs to hatch them. That's why a broody hen stays on her nest and will not leave her eggs.