incubate
To brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision…To brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision of ideal environmental conditions.
Recorded UK: Speaker: Vealhurl Recorder: Vealhurl, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
» The sun incubated the tortoise eggs.
ariarin · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 senses(transitive)To brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision of ideal environmental conditions.
ausbrüten
(figuratively, transitive)To incubate metaphorically; to ponder an idea slowly and deliberately as if in preparation for hatching it.
- grow under conditions that promote development
- sit on (eggs)
Examples
10 sentencesThe sun incubated the tortoise eggs.
You will have to incubate the eggs artificially.
ruВам придётся инкубировать яйца искусственно. — astru
You should incubate your bacterial culture at 37 degrees.
The eggs are incubating under the mother bird.
The hens incubate her eggs untill they hatch.
Translations
5 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
First attested in 1641; borrowed from Latin incubātus, an alternative to incubitus, perfecFirst attested in 1641; borrowed from Latin incubātus, an alternative to incubitus, perfect passive participle of incubō (“to hatch”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from in- (“in”) + cubō (“to lie”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
incubates, incubating, incubated, incubatedSynonyms
3 synonymsWord family
9 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.