brook
noun
a small, natural stream of fresh water.
brook
1 American
[brook]
/ brʊk /
noun
-
brooks
plural
brook
2
American
[brook]
/ brʊk /
verb (used with object)
-
brooks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
brooked,
past participle, past
-
brooking
present participle
Brook
1
British
/ brʊk /
noun
brook
2
British
/ brʊk /
noun
brook
3
British
/ brʊk /
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
brooksimple
-
brookssimple
-
have brookedperfect
-
has brookedperfect
-
am brookingprogressive
-
are brookingprogressive
-
is brookingprogressive
-
have been brookingperfect progressive
-
has been brookingperfect progressive
Past
-
brookedsimple
-
had brookedperfect
-
was brookingprogressive
-
were brookingprogressive
-
had been brookingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of brook1
before 900; Middle English; Old English brōc stream; cognate with Dutch broek, German Bruch marsh
Origin of brook2
before 900; Middle English brouken, Old English brūcan; cognate with Dutch bruiken, German brauchen; akin to Gothic brukjan, Latin fruī to enjoy
Explanation
A brook is a small stream. On a hot day, you might enjoy wading in a babbling brook. As a verb, brook is a rather stuffy word for "put up with." The lord of the manor might say, "I will brook no trespassing on my land." Brook is tailor-made for talking about what you won't stand for — it's always "brook no..." If you brook no criticism of your friend, it means you won't let people speak ill of her. If you brook no brooks, it means you've developed a bizarre hatred of streams and will spend the rest of your days trying to avoid them.
Vocabulary lists containing brook
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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.
See Examples For:
As we climbed the terraced pools of the West Kill, I concentrated on keeping my cast short and precise until I caught my first brook trout, or “brookie.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Large-scale protests are rare in Vietnam, where the communist authorities brook little dissent.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
But because she’s telling the worst men what they want to hear, Stuckey has created space for herself to live out the usually male role of being the pompous bully who will brook no dissent.
From Salon ● Dec. 1, 2025
Mr Lister told Radio Wales Breakfast he often visited the brook as it is a good spot for photographing wildlife in the area.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2025
In the distance a brook burbled happily along, and a great tree beyond it spread its branches wide.
From "Prisoner B-3087" by Alan Gratz
Over a 36-hour period more than a tonne of oil was released into Thornton Brook and spread to the Mersey Estuary.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
Brook made 77 and Jordan Cox, picked in the place of the injured Jos Buttler, added a 52-ball 76 to lift England to 355-7.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
“It just is so hard for people to be constructive right now,” Brook said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Brook got a quick glimpse of the market’s reaction—a sharp jump in yields on short and longer-duration bonds—before turning his phone onto airplane mode.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
Usually when two people go for a walk together, Mrs. Brook says, they actually walk together.
From "Mockingbird" by Kathryn Erskine
It is a remarkable climb-down, underscoring the difficulty of spurring the transition to electric vehicles even in an authoritarian country that brooks little dissent.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
His strictly regulated factory model brooks no challenges from his workers, and he employs an enormous security force to snuff out the merest whisper of pro-union sentiment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
Critics argue that the whirr of chopper blades is drowning out the sound of birds, bubbling lava and babbling brooks.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 3, 2023
"Pedal steel guitar strains tremble in the air, piano chords cascade like brooks, an ethereal harmonica conjures a mood of wailing longing. Beautiful."
From BBC ● May 19, 2023
They had splashed through two brooks and wandered fearfully in the deep woodlands west of Ecchinswell.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Critics say Kainerugaba has brooked little opposition in the country, acting decisively against anyone perceived as a threat to his father's administration.
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2026
Gottheimer quickly admitted to fabricating the post but brooked no argument over his Boss bona fides.
From Salon ● Dec. 13, 2024
He brooked no challenges, no outside interference, no distractions.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2022
How can his colleagues have brooked such a thing?
From Washington Times ● Apr. 13, 2021
The regent brooked no discussion: the bride had already been selected and lobola paid.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
“It doesn’t really matter who wins from that perspective. And there’s just no brooking that divide right now.”
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 30, 2020
Mr. Douglas developed a reputation for brooking little criticism.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 5, 2020
Not brooking even possible party division may pay off.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 26, 2019
Their candidate Jack Brereton sticks with unerring consistency to a handful of talking points, brooking little deviation and plenty of repetition.
From BBC ● Jan. 31, 2017
And now her voice brooking in my ear, in a voice I hardly recognized.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
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.
