- present participle of brood.
brooding
Americanadjective
-
preoccupied with depressing, morbid, or painful memories or thoughts.
a brooding frame of mind.
-
cast in subdued light so as to convey a somewhat threatening atmosphere.
Dusk fell on the brooding hills.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of brooding
First recorded in 1810–20 brooding for def. 1; 1640–50 brooding for def. 2; brood + -ing 2
Explanation
When you're dwelling on something, you're brooding about it — this can be thoughtful or morbidly obsessed. When you're brooding, you might be depressed about something you just can't stop thinking about — like the lead character in Hamlet. Brooding can also mean you're being extremely thoughtful, contemplative, meditative, musing, reflective, or ruminative — those are all good things. You have to look at the context to see if someone is brooding in a positive or negative way. This is also a word for what chickens and other egg-laying animals do: sitting on eggs to help them hatch.
Vocabulary lists containing brooding
Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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Bless Me, Ultima
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When a brooding Pitt admits he’s had trouble with “family stuff,” the writer lets the sentiment disintegrate.
From Salon ● Aug. 11, 2026
Mr. Simons brings a brooding sensitivity to this roughed-up-by-life man, whom Paul instinctively finds himself turning to for advice in his growing sense of emotional uncertainty.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
A dull yellow light peeks through a brooding sky looming over rolling Southern California hills.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
Nathaniel Hawthorne set this brooding, allegorical work in mid-19th-century Salem, Mass., a town cursed by the crimes of the witch trials.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Her face darkened, anger bloated her lips and lit fires behind her black brooding eyes.
From "Nectar in a Sieve" by Kamala Markandaya
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
