brooding

[broo-ding]

adjective

1. preoccupied with depressing, morbid, or painful memories or thoughts.

   a brooding frame of mind.

2. 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of brooding¹

First recorded in 1810–20 brooding for def. 1; 1640–50 brooding for def. 2; brood + -ing ²

Example Sentences

Dean had made only three films but was already a star whose brooding performances captured a counternarrative to the 1950s.

From Los Angeles Times

The Henry Murray Stage upstairs at the Matrix Theatre has been transformed into an adolescent hideaway, where music and literature are the only salves for alienated brooding.

From Los Angeles Times

He regularly signed on for dark, challenging roles and inhabited broken, brooding characters.

From Salon

“When you think of goth, you think of brooding. But we’re all just people who love the music. We’re embracing those musical roots but we add our own flavor to it.”

From Los Angeles Times

The Guardian called him the "master of the brooding silence", but Stamp's acting proved to have range as well as depth.

From BBC

Related Words

• dignified 
• earnest 
• funereal 
• glum 
• intense 
• pensive 
• portentous 
• reflective 
• sedate 
• sober 
• somber 
• stern 
• thoughtful 
• weighty