incubate

UK/ˈɪŋkjʊbeɪt/US/ˈɪŋkjʊbeɪt/

verbB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,939 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: incubated, incubating, incubates

To incubate is to keep eggs warm until they hatch. Incubate the eggs, incubating for three weeks, incubated at thirty-seven degrees.

Steady warmth matters more than high warmth, and in some reptiles the temperature decides the sex of the young. The word also covers the quiet period before an illness shows, and a business incubator borrows the same image. The Latin means to lie on.

Definitions of incubate

1verbincubateTo keep eggs warm until they hatch.B2+
“The hen incubates her eggs by sitting on them day and night.”

incubate is a keeping warm.

Where it comes from

Latin incubare means to lie on — in plus cubare, to lie. Incumbent comes from the same lying.

Proto-Indo-European
*ḱewb-
Latin
incubātus
English, today
incubate

Built from

incubō · Latin — to hatch
in- · Latin — in
cubō · Latin — to lie

1641; Latin incubātus, an alternative to incubitus, perfect passive participle of incubō (“to hatch”) (see -ate and -ate), from in- (“in”) + cubō (“to lie”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Birds

Practise this word

incubate in the wild

Both adults incubate the eggs and feed the chicks.
River kingfisher
Especially in poultry, the act of sitting on eggs to incubate them is called brooding.
Egg incubation
Males incubate the eggs in their mouth due to having longer heads and a larger jaw, which females do not acquire.
Apogonidae
Like other hornbills, the females incubate four to five white eggs while sealed in the nest compartment.
Trumpeter hornbill
In recent years, Soho Playhouse serves to incubate and produce intimate new works.
SoHo Playhouse

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the cubō family

incubator

incubate — used about once every 33,333 pages · #13,939 · point at the bar for the others

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