INCUBATION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Incubation

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/ˌɪŋkjubˈeɪʃən/ Listen

noun

Incubation n.

A sitting on eggs for the purpose of hatching young; a brooding on, or keeping warm, (eggs) to develop the life within, by any process.

(Med.) The development of a disease from its causes, or its period of incubation. (See below.)

A sleeping in a consecrated place for the purpose of dreaming oracular dreams.

The maintenance (of a living organism, such as microorganisms or a premature baby) in appropriate conditions, such as of temperature, humidity, or atmospheric composition, for growth.

The gradual development in some interior environment, until fully formed; as, the incubation time for developing a new drug may be longer than ten years from its first discovery.

Period of incubation, or Stage of incubation (Med.), the period which elapses between exposure to the causes of an infectious disease and the attack resulting from it; the time during which an infective agent must grow in the body before producing overt symptoms of disease.

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Etymology of 'Incubation'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Incubation" Quotes from Famous Books

... the gaze of Astaroth, rushed into the antechamber, after bowing to the terrible old woman. He was moist from head to foot, as if under the incubation of some evil spirit. ...

— Unconscious Comedians • Honore de Balzac

... their turn at the prodigious coolness of a tender parent. "Not exactly," said Dr. Wycherley; "I am habitually averse to exaggeration of symptoms. Your son's suggest to me 'the Incubation of ...

— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... strongly recommends the study of this volume to Mr. OSCAR WILDE; it will save him hours of painful cogitation during the incubation of his ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, May 20, 1893 • Various

... in monosyllables: the boy would make fatuous replies to his questions. Olivier would lose heart: he would try not to let it be seen: but he thought he had made a mistake, and that the boy was thoroughly stupid. He could not see the frightful fevered travail in incubation that was going on in the inner depths of the boy's soul. Besides, he was a bad teacher, and was more fitted to sow the good seed at random in the fields than to weed the soil and plow the furrows. Christophe's presence only served to increase the difficulty. Olivier felt a certain ...

— Jean-Christophe Journey's End • Romain Rolland

... the course of my little excursion, I so interfere with the process that I can never again find out what is worthy of being preserved, or what should be given in full length, what in torso, or what merely in profile. This process of incubation may be unreasonably prolonged; and I am somewhat afraid that I have made this mistake with the present journey. Like a bad daguerreotype, great part of it has been entirely lost; I can tell you nothing about the ...

— Essays of Travel • Robert Louis Stevenson

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