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
A formerly shady brook, enclosed by trees, has been opened out to form a wetland area.
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 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
And here comes Matthew, coming on in slow steps, like he no longer has to hurry, his Noise reaching forward in a wave that don’t brook no argument.
From "The Knife of Never Letting Go" by Patrick Ness
Muhammad Rizwan: Showed some fight in making 41 in Pakistan's second innings but should have at least tried standing up to the stumps to Muhammad Ali when Brook was batting.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
It must be the blueprint for Brook across the rest of his Test career.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
It is no surprise this version of Brook has come immediately after he was overlooked as captain.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Harry Brook sparkled in the Headingley gloom to build England's commanding lead over Pakistan on a shortened second day of the first Test.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Colin Maclaurin and Brook Taylor, perhaps the best British mathematicians in the era of isolation from the Continent, discovered how to use calculus to rewrite functions in a totally different form.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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
Not enough rain has fallen to feed the watershed system of rivers and brooks that fill lakes, whose waters in turn fill the locks.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 3, 2023
This message has echoed down the centuries and brooks no dissent or prospect for change.
From BBC ● Feb. 21, 2023
To make matters worse, many of the island’s brooks and streams emptied right into the ocean, where all that water became undrinkable.
From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown
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
In a voice that brooked no doubt, he said, “Azoth of this world does not affect mesarthium.”
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
“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.
