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.
Brooding frontman Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the number about a girlfriend who was moving away to Ecuador, and titled the song "Good Riddance" out of frustration with the breakup.
From Salon • Oct. 25, 2021
Brooding on the questions, he came up with 33 responses, which are laid out in these pages in as many numbered sections.
From Washington Post • Dec. 27, 2017
Brooding also makes you more likely to blame yourself with questions such as “Why do I always react like this?” and “Why can’t I handle this better?”
From Time • Sep. 6, 2016
Brooding over it is one of England’s finest castles, an impressive ring of towers and crenellations around a Norman keep.
From The Guardian • Feb. 16, 2016
Brooding, he became convinced, at times, that “the NSA considers me their greatest security risk.”
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
