1. (of a bird) sit on (eggs) in order to keep them warm and bring them to hatching.
▪ (especially in a laboratory) keep (eggs, cells, bacteria, embryos, etc.) at a suitable temperature so that they develop: "the samples were incubated at 80°C for three minutes"
▪ have an infectious disease developing inside one before symptoms appear: "the possibility that she was incubating early syphilis"
▪ develop slowly without outward or perceptible signs:"unfortunately the BSE bug incubates for around three years"
Word Originmid 17th century: from Latin incubat- ‘lain on’, from the verb incubare, from in- ‘upon’ + cubare ‘to lie’.
