before 900; Middle English; Old English brōc stream; cognate with Dutch broek, German Bruch marsh
before 900; Middle English brouken, Old English brūcan; cognate with Dutch bruiken, German brauchen; akin to Gothic brukjan, Latin fruī to enjoy
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.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But one insult residents won’t brook is someone who doesn’t have confidence in better days ahead for the city no matter how dire things may be.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 10, 2026
People kept stopping to talk to him, although they mostly made small murmuring noises, like the fake brook that runs through a suburban shopping center.
From Salon • Sep. 14, 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
Her partner, Art Linfoot, built the house they lost, a cabin with a wraparound porch and a year-round brook where deer drank and the sound of the water lulled the couple to sleep.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 10, 2025
This was not the sort of nonsense Mrs. Jacobs would brook.
From "Breadcrumbs" by Anne Ursu
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.
