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
- broodingly adverb
- nonbrooding adjective
- unbrooding adjective
Etymology
Origin of brooding
First recorded in 1810–20 brooding for def. 1; 1640–50 brooding for def. 2; brood + -ing 2
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.
"Modern birds aren't 'better' at hatching eggs. Instead, birds living today and oviraptors have a very different way of incubation or, more specifically, brooding," Yang pointed out.
From Science Daily • Mar. 19, 2026
She raises up a heating pad — nicknamed Jake Ryan after the brooding heartthrob in “Sixteen Candles” — that’s been warming her body.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 3, 2026
Robert Duvall was a distinguished and prolific screen actor who lent a brooding intensity and grizzled authority to seven decades of American film-making.
From BBC • Feb. 16, 2026
Manderley is the Cornwall estate of Maxim de Winter, Rebecca’s brooding widower.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025
As they ran, they called out to one another in a weird, wordless cry that echoed almost from the brooding crags of Dark Gate itself.
From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander
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.
