• vt. 孵化；培养；温育；逐渐发展
• vi. 孵化；酝酿
• n. 孵育物

in-,进入，使，在上面，-cub,躺，词源同cubicle,succumb.即躺在上面，引申词义孵化，培养。

incubate

incubate: [18] Latin incubāre, the source of English incubate, meant literally ‘lie down on’. It was based on the verb cubāre ‘lie’, which also produced English concubine and cubicle. The notion of ‘lying on eggs to hatch them’ seems later to have fed back into the simple verb cubāre, which in this sense gave English couvade ‘male mimicking of child-bearing’ [19] (an anthropological term borrowed from French) and covey [14].

Another English descendant of incubāre is incubus ‘male demon that has sex with a sleeping woman’ [14], literally ‘one who lies down on another’ (its counterpart is the succubus ‘female demon that has sex with a sleeping man’ [16], literally ‘one who lies down under another’). The nasalized version of the stem of Latin cubāre gave English incumbent [16] (which etymologically means ‘resting upon as a duty’) and recumbent [17].
=> cubicle, concubine, covey, incubus, incumbent, recumbent, succubus, succumb

incubate (v.)

1640s, "to brood upon, watch jealously" (which also was a figurative sense of Latin incubare); 1721 as "to sit on eggs to hatch them," from Latin incubatus, past participle of incubare "to lie in or upon" (see incubation). Related: Incubated; incubating.

1. The birds returned to their nests and continued to incubate the eggs.

鸟儿回到巢里继续孵卵。

来自柯林斯例句

2. The time needed for the eggs to incubate is nine or ten days.

蛋孵化需要的时间是九到十天.

来自《简明英汉词典》

3. The virus can incubate for up to ten days after the initial infection.

病毒在初次感染以后可以潜伏长达10天。

来自辞典例句

4. Incubate all the containers containing medium for not more than 5 days.

培养所有含有培养基的容器,培养时间不超过5天.

来自互联网

5. Incubate the inoculated media for not less than 14 days.

将接种后的培养基培养不少于14天.

来自互联网