Incubate

Acceptable For Game Play - US & UK word lists

This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
  • v. To sit on (eggs) to provide heat, so as to promote embryonic development and the hatching of young; brood.
  • v. To maintain (eggs, organisms, or living tissue) at optimal environmental conditions for growth and development.
  • v. To maintain (a chemical or biochemical system) under specific conditions in order to promote a particular reaction.
  • v. To form or consider slowly and protectively, as if hatching: incubated the idea for a while, then announced it.
  • verb-intransitive. To brood eggs.
  • verb-intransitive. To develop and hatch.
  • verb-intransitive. To undergo incubation.
  • Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
  • v. To brood, raise, or maintain eggs, organisms, or living tissue through the provision of ideal environmental conditions.
  • v. To incubate metaphorically; to ponder an idea slowly and deliberately as if in preparation for hatching it.
  • the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
  • v. To sit, as on eggs for hatching; to brood; to brood upon, or keep warm, as eggs, for the purpose of hatching.
  • v. To maintain (a living organism, such as microorganisms or a premature baby) under appropriate conditions, such as of temperature, humidity, or atmospheric composition, for growth.
  • v. To develop gradually in some interior environment, until fully formed.
  • The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
  • To sit upon for the purpose of hatching; hatch out, or produce by hatching: often used figuratively: as, to incubate eggs; to incubate a book or a project.
  • To sit, as on eggs, for the purpose of hatching; brood: as, a bird that incubates for two weeks.
  • In pathology, to go through the stage or process of incubation. See incubation, 2.
  • In bacteriology, to place (a culture) in a thermostat or a similar apparatus for the purpose of obtaining the maximum growth of bacteria by keeping them at a constant optimum temperature.
  • WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
  • v. sit on (eggs)
  • v. grow under conditions that promote development
  • Verb Form
    incubated    incubates    incubating   
    Hypernym
    Words that are more generic or abstract
    reproduce    multiply    procreate    develop   
    Form
    Synonym
    Words with the same meaning
    brood    sit    covert    hatch