How to Use incubate in a Sentence

incubate

verb
  • The female bird incubates the eggs.
  • The cultures must incubate for five more days.
  • The virus will incubate in the body for several days before the patient experiences any symptoms.
  • Researchers incubated the cells in the laboratory.
  • The eggs incubate for 60 days and crack open in the fourth week of January.
    Erika I. Ritchie, Orange County Register, 5 Feb. 2024
  • The two incubated three eggs on top of the library in 2017.
    Genevieve Bookwalter, chicagotribune.com, 17 Apr. 2018
  • The eggs then incubate in warm sand for roughly 60 days, the agency says.
    Fox News, 22 July 2022
  • The process of making a batch from scratch takes this chef 24 hours, though most of that time is spent incubating the cheese.
    Jean Trinh, Los Angeles Magazine, 26 Mar. 2018
  • Elmer and Lima were given a chance to incubate the egg.
    NBC News, 2 Feb. 2022
  • To make the xenobots, the researchers scraped living stem cells from frog embryos and left them to incubate.
    Katie Hunt, CNN, 29 Nov. 2021
  • The protocol required at least two eggs to be left in the nests for the local birds to incubate.
    Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7 Aug. 2021
  • After incubating the egg for five months, the pup hatched.
    Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 9 Nov. 2023
  • The birds’ eggs are the largest of any species in proportion to their body size; females incubate their eggs for 75 to 90 days.
    BostonGlobe.com, 25 May 2021
  • For instance, some fish, like lake whitefish, spawn in the fall in nearshore areas of the lakes where the eggs incubate over the winter.
    Caitlin Looby, Journal Sentinel, 1 Mar. 2024
  • For instance, some fish, like lake whitefish, spawn in the fall in nearshore areas of the lakes where the eggs incubate over the winter.
    Caitlin Looby, Journal Sentinel, 11 June 2024
  • The tech rise of Guadalajara had taken decades to incubate.
    Andrew Selee, Smithsonian, 13 June 2018
  • Netflix was the first app available on Roku and helped incubate the business.
    Patience Haggin, WSJ, 17 Dec. 2020
  • The chefs and sous chefs of shuttered restaurants have taken this year to incubate new ideas.
    Erik Oberholtzer, Rolling Stone, 8 Mar. 2021
  • Taking that time to incubate yourself to be ready for this world.
    Essence, 1 Nov. 2023
  • Once transmitted, the virus incubates for two to 21 days.
    Susan Scutti, CNN, 31 Oct. 2017
  • The male and female are taking turns and sometimes squabbling over who will incubate the eggs.
    BostonGlobe.com, 8 Apr. 2021
  • The flip side: often the USTA has put in years of work (and years of financing) to incubate careers.
    Jon Wertheim, SI.com, 27 June 2018
  • Even five minutes off the nest can doom incubating eggs or chicks.
    Bruce Henderson, charlotteobserver, 15 Feb. 2018
  • The hens will eventually incubate their four eggs and raise young within 150 yards of the singing grounds.
    Tom Fegely, Field & Stream, 13 Apr. 2020
  • So if the test was done when the infection was still incubating, the test may turn out to be negative.
    Catherine Ho, SFChronicle.com, 17 Apr. 2020
  • Male and female plovers take turns incubating their eggs, and this pair’s flawless changing of the guard is a healthy sign.
    Washington Post, 17 June 2019
  • The female often incubates the eggs, while the male usually secures the food.
    Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 June 2024
  • The baby emerges from an egg incubated in its mother’s pouch for about 10 days.
    Danielle Beurteaux, National Geographic, 26 Sep. 2019
  • The virus can incubate for days before a test will uncover it.
    Calvin Woodward and Jill Colvin, chicagotribune.com, 2 Oct. 2020
  • Another 200 people will be part of companies Lilly will incubate.
    Matthew Herper, STAT, 14 Aug. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'incubate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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